Spain’s former monarch would love to return home – his son, King Felipe, is one of many who do not want to
Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, Spain’s long-time king, has good friends. He and his wife Sofía are “two heroes,” says Madrid Regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Two heroes “to whom we owe the first and enduring, courageous, resourceful and decisive impetus that the Constitution brought us” – the 1978 democratic constitution after four decades of Franco’s dictatorship. Ex-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also regrets in a book that has just been published that Juan Carlos is being insulted “mercilessly and unjustly in this country”. And one of Rajoy’s predecessors, Felipe González, says: “I want him to return and that his presumption of innocence be respected.”
To return. The old king wants that too. For a year and four months, Juan Carlos has been living in self-chosen exile in Abu Dhabi, which might have been attractive for a while, but no longer. His departure from Spain was probably not the best idea he had ever had, it looked too much like an escape, although nobody was following him then and neither is now. So, as a former king and today’s king’s father, he could return to where he belongs, to his palace at the gates of Madrid.
A journalist who is valued for his credibility, José Antonio Zarzalejos, recently wrote in the online newspaper “El Confidencial” that this was his wish, which caused a little unrest in Spain. Juan Carlos back at the palace, funded by the taxpayer? Unimaginable for many. The presumption of innocence is a legal concept, but not an overly human one. Juan Carlos doesn’t just have friends in Spain.
The king’s loose mouth
Pedro Sánchez, the current head of government, recently said in a television interview with a populist instinct: “It would be appropriate for King Juan Carlos to say what his opinion is about all these facts, which are worrying information.” Sánchez did not get any more specific. Anyone who watched knew what was meant: If Juan Carlos is not corrupt, then at least he has evaded taxes. In any case, he paid millions in taxes last year, which was in a way an admission of guilt.
Otherwise, a Swiss and several Spanish prosecutors have been investigating the ex-monarch for years without getting anywhere. For a large audience, that’s as good as a condemnation. King Felipe apparently also belongs to this audience. The relationship between father and son has reached a temperature “below freezing”, writes Zarzalejos, citing unknown sources.
Should Juan Carlos return to Spain despite everything, he should be prepared for many unfriendly reports about him. For decades the press was pious, the king was treated as inviolable, even though he wasn’t even then. Now everything is being made up for, ruthlessly, ex-Prime Minister Rajoy is quite right.
One of the greatest stories that is gradually turning from rumor to reliable fact is the king’s amorous affair with a television star named Bárbara Rey. It would not have to concern anyone if the former Miss Madrid had not successfully blackmailed Juan Carlos for years, which a former head of the secret service has just confirmed on television. Apparently Rey had installed several cameras and microphones in her house, which not only documented the affair, but also the loose mouth of the king, who chatted carelessly about state affairs.
“I only gave tender affection to someone who needed it,” said the secret lover in 1997 on a tabloid program. At that time she did not mention the someone’s name. She herself needed money, which the secret service got from friends of the king. In addition, she was allowed to host an entertainment show for three years on the state television TVE. In the name of the security of the state. After all: Bárbara Rey has remained silent about all the details of her affair to this day. Even if that didn’t help the good reputation of the old king in the long run.
