John Charles I is giving Felipe VI and the Government a real pulse on his first visit to Spain after self-exile in the United Arab Emirates. To his son, because his father’s stay has become a media spectacle, very far from what he had let him know that he wanted in this first trip. To the Executive of Pedro Sanchez, because the president had warned the emeritus that he wanted him to give explanations to the Spanish for his hidden fortune. The former head of state did not refer to his scandals on Thursday or Friday despite the opportunity to be surrounded by cameras, nor will he do so before he travels back to Abu Dhabi on Monday, according to what they assure EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA sources from the environment of the emeritus.
The decision to reappear in Spain in a regatta worried the Zarzuela and the Government, but the tension grew even more this Friday when the Mayor of Sanxenxo, Telmo Martín assured that the Monarch plans to return on June 10 to participate in another sailing competition. According to sources familiar with the contacts between the two institutions, the Casa del Rey made it clear that it wanted the first image was familiar, something that has not happened. “He’s giving everyone a pulse,” regrets a high-ranking socialist official who has spoken for hours with Felipe VI about the risk that his father poses to his reign.
The mayor of Sanxenxo announces that the former head of state will return to another regatta in June
Minutes after learning that the former head of state wishes to return to another regatta, the Casa del Rey informed the press that it is “unlikely” that on Monday the photo of the lunch that Juan Carlos I has in the Zarzuela with his son, Sofía, and other members of the family be made public. The reason given is that it is “a family gathering in the private sphere.” The lunch they organized for her in 2018 for her 80th anniversary also had those characteristics and the House sent that photograph.
The earthquake caused by the return of the emeritus has surprised Felipe VI with a monarchical institution with hardly any deep changes in its internal functioning or transparency. The Government, as this newspaper published in March, suggested to the King that he resign his inviolability, a medieval privilege that has saved his father from sitting on the bench. That legal shield for private acts contained in the Constitution can be dodged, according to the reports handled by the Executive, with a reform of the organic law of the judiciary and without the need to touch the Magna Carta. La Moncloa considers that this decision would send an unequivocal Spanish message that the monarchy is modernizing and the two kings have diametrically different attitudes.
From the enthronement speech, with the commitment to transparency, to the publication of the heritage, 8 years have passed
The Heritage
Related news
But Felipe VI has not wanted to take that initiative for now. The most relevant step after his father’s scandals (in addition to renouncing his inheritance and taking away his salary, relevant measures, but which do not affect transparency) was taken on April 25, a month and a half after the prosecution filed the diligences. The Casa del Rey made the Monarch’s assets public: 2.6 million euros. No data from Queen Letizia was offered, nor was it clarified whether this matter will be reported annually.
His advisers recalled various passages from his enthronement speech about the necessaryexemplariness” of the monarchy and stressed that the desire of Felipe VI is “to contribute to the regeneration of public life”. However, that enthronement took place in June 2014, eight years ago of which only in the first of his reign gave a boost to the updating of the pillars of the institution. It was 12 months in which he approved, among other measures, a regulation on gifts for the royal family, a code of conduct for the staff of the House and revoked the title of duchess to Cristina. The regenerating spirit was diminishing and did not go back neither when the hidden fortune of Juan Carlos I was known nor when he went into self-exile and the almost two years of apparent tranquility.