Memoirs, especially those written by politicians or relevant figures in the public life of a country, usually have two objectives: to present the protagonist as a victim or to highlight complacency with one’s faculties. Memoirs published posthumously tend to be more interesting, because they lose some of that narcissistic quality. Politicians who transform their memoirs into real history treatises are rare. Of course, this is not the case with the memoirs published this week by the king emeritus, Don Juan Carlos. He practically ignores his personal life, without giving the necessary explanations, and does not provide unknown elements on the facts of his public life.
The fact that its publication was intended to coincide with the commemorative events of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of Juan Carlos I as king of Spain, which took place at the Palacio de las Cortes on 22 November 1975, is inconvenient for the current king, Felipe VI, because incomprehensibly the king emeritus was not given any role in that commemoration, although he was obviously the protagonist of that event. It would have been difficult to adapt, because there are no precedents for “kings emeritus” and because Juan Carlos I resigned at the time with a statement, announced by the then president, Mariano Rajoy, in which he declared that he had decided to “put an end” to his reign and to “abdicate the Crown of Spain”.
Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the absence of the King Emeritus at the commemorations on the 22nd will be striking. However complicated the adaptation was, it should have been the Government, and not the Royal Household, who found the formula and gave the relevant explanation for his discreet presence. An official event will be celebrated on the 22nd, there is no focus on the private or public life of Juan Carlos I, and it is difficult to ignore the role of the now king emeritus in the first 40 years of activity of the monarchical institution.
The private life of Don Juan Carlos does not correspond to the development of his public life. It is important to note that the king immediately linked the future of the monarchy not to the act of proclamation of 22 November, but to the drafting of a Constitution that would give legitimacy to the institution and establish the constitutional mechanisms and provisions necessary for its survival. In fact, he publicly recognized that the monarchy would only be legitimized once the Constitution had been approved and, perhaps with some perplexity, but without expressing opposition, that said Constitution was of a parliamentary type, that is, it granted the figure of the king a symbolic and ceremonial role as head of state, but without the possibility of dissolving Parliament or posing veto laws. Juan Carlos immediately accepted this definition of the Spanish monarchy and made great efforts in the first years to make it clear that this role was purely symbolic, without any type of political adhesion. It is curious that, in his memoirs, he says that he became king because Franco wanted it, because for years, in private conversations, he had made it clear that his personal appreciation for the dictator was compatible with his belief that only a democratic Constitution, drawn up with the greatest possible consensus, could guarantee not only his permanence on the throne, but the stability of the monarchical institution in the coming decades.
It has never been clear why successive democratic governments (starting with Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González) did not exercise greater control over King Juan Carlos’ private life. It is one thing that they did not interfere in his love life and another, very different, that they allowed the monarch to carry out economic activities outside the law. Juan Carlos I might have accepted gifts worth millions of dollars, but what he could not do was deposit that money in accounts abroad and thus avoid its taxation in the Spanish treasury. Governments should promise to uphold and enforce the Constitution and prosecute crimes. Either they had information about it or they should have requested it, but it is obvious that in no case did they take the necessary measures. All governments left the monarchical institution in the exclusive hands of the king, when his task would have been to guarantee its stability. The king emeritus explains in his book that he would like to reside in Spain, but that it is a decision that is entirely up to him, in the event that he does not have any pending dispute with the Spanish justice system. If you wish to live in Spain, this wish must be respected, although your accommodation must not depend on the Royal Household, even if it is still part of it.
