The president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, confesses in an interview with EL PAÍS that he has not yet read Reconciliationthe memoir of Juan Carlos I, published last Wednesday in France and whose publication in Spain will take place on December 3. However, the chief executive quips and says that “it won’t be one of the ones I recommend” to give as a gift next Christmas.
In his memoirs, written with the French author Laurence Debray, the emeritus retraces the most important moments of his life: from his birth in Rome, where the Spanish royal family was exiled, to his voluntary exile in Abu Dhabi after his sentimental and financial scandals became known.
This is how Juan Carlos describes the relationship he had with the dictator Francisco Franco, of whom he says he “respected” and “appreciated his intelligence and his political sense”. “Did I have a filial relationship with Franco? There were 46 years of difference and he had no children. Perhaps he projected a paternal feeling onto me”, says the emeritus in his book. “I respected him and appreciated his intelligence and his political sense,” he adds. He also recounts the moment when Franco called him to appoint him as his successor with the title of King. “One day he summoned me to his office. I knew nothing. He told me bluntly: ‘I will appoint you as successor as king. Do you accept?’ I was amazed, I thought of my father. I asked him if he had time to think about it, but he expected my answer quickly. I was between a rock and a hard place. Silence reigned, I only listened to my breathing. I accepted. Like a duty and an obligation.”
Sánchez refers to this topic in his interview with EL PAÍS: “I haven’t read the book yet. But I will also tell you that it will not be one of those that I recommend for this Christmas, given what I have seen. The current head of state does a commendable job,” he says, and underlines that “some things” in the book have “surprised” him: “I will respond to some of the things that, in short, surprised me, about who brought or did not bring democracy. Democracy did not fall from the sky: it is the result of the struggle of Spanish men and women, of ordinary people, of the pedestrians of history, as Vázquez Montalbán said.
