The day after Mario Vargas Llosa entered the French Academy, in April 2023, President Emmanuel Macron hosted a dinner at the Elysée with three guests: the new Hispanic Peruvian academic, Javier Cercas, and King Juan Carlos. It is something that the latter recalled in the promotion of his book of Memoirs, Reconciliation.
According to what the monarch declared in the first interview released The Figarothat night he said to Cercas: “How can you believe that I was involved in the plot?” But the writer, as he now confesses to EL PAÍS, does not remember that sentence or that reproach. “Since you ask, I have to tell the truth. And that’s false,” he says.
The King Emeritus expressed his opinion on the matter Anatomy of a momentthe book that Cercas published in 2009 on the 23-F coup. There the author states that the King sinned through indiscretion. And that this systematic indiscretion in political and military forums could lead to revolt. Something other than directly accusing him of being involved. When the book appeared, the author declared it in The weekly country: “It is true that the King stopped the coup. And we must thank him for his reaction that night. But it is equally true that his indiscretions and his desire to put an end to Suárez facilitated it.” To a large extent and after four years of investigation, Cercas defends that theory with testimonies and proven facts.
He had not had the opportunity to discuss the matter with the king until the evening of the dinner at the Elysée. Macron had brought a copy Anatomy of a moment to discuss among the guests. So they did it. But not in the terms that Juan Carlos now comments: “It’s totally false. There was no tension. At dinner they talked about it. Macron read several fragments. Then we discussed things. It’s so easy. So why does he say it? I’m sorry. I don’t know. I won’t make assumptions. But I don’t understand. I don’t understand why he says something that isn’t true. I don’t understand what we gain or what he gains because the truth, for me, matters to me.”
Cercas remembers that there was a good atmosphere and that he even agreed with him on several things. “We commented, for example, that the coup d’état was not just one, but included three. The first, that of Antonio Tejero, who did it in Francoist style, to transform Spain into a barracks. The second, that of General Jaime Milans del Bosch, who had an inspiration like Miguel Primo de Rivera. And the third, that of Alfonso Armada, who pursued a government of concentration, like De Gaulle.” This was what hurt Juan Carlos the most, as he confessed The Figaro: “He was by my side for 17 years. I loved him very much and he betrayed me. He convinced the generals that he spoke on my behalf,” she says.
