Spain’s King Juan Carlos retired from public life in 2019. The following year, all hell broke loose. Several stories about Juan Carlos came to a head, including his many financial crimes/shenanigans when he was on the throne. He was taking payoffs and bribes, he was politicizing his position, and he had a very talkative mistress. His son, now King Felipe, ended up cutting off his father’s retirement money from the state in March 2020. By the summer of 2020, King Juan Carlos went into exile, staying in various Middle Eastern hotels and palaces. The last time I paid attention to him, he was in a ritzy hotel suite in Abu Dhabi. There was a lot of talk about how the Spanish monarchy was in crisis, but since Juan Carlos left the country, the impression I’ve gotten (as an American) is that King Felipe and Queen Letizia steadied the ship, and they are seen as pretty stable, straight-arrow and relatively popular. Well, guess who’s coming back to Spain??
Former King of Spain Juan Carlos wants to return home and does not care about possibly damaging the Royal Family’s reputation by doing so, an expert has claimed. Juan Carlos, 83, who abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son Felipe VI, 53, has been living in Abu Dhabi since summer 2020 after becoming the target of several probes in Spain over his financial dealings. However, the elderly royal is reportedly hoping to see out his final years home, despite a majority of the Spanish public opposing his return.
Speaking to The Times, Pablo Simon, a professor of political science at Carlos III University in Madrid, explained Juan Carlos ‘does not care’ whether his actions damage his son and his family. He added the monarch believes he has ‘done his part’ for Spain by playing an instrumental role in re-establishing democracy after the death of General Franco in 1975.
‘He’s indifferent to the possible damage he’s doing to the monarchy because he believes he’s done his part,’ Professor Simon said. ‘Knowing that he’s only got a few years of life left, he simply doesn’t care.’
In December, it was reported Juan Carlos had demanded to move back to Zarzuela Palace, the Spanish royal family’s residence in Madrid. However a readers’ poll conduction by the Spanish publication 20 Minutos showed 42 per cent of people did not believe he should come back to Spain. Some 35 per cent were in favour of the royal’s return. In spite of this, the former king still plans to make his move to Spain in the coming year.
Juan Carlos is facing three separate criminal probes in Spain. One is related to the use of credit cards linked to foreign accounts after his June 2014 abdication when he lost his constitutional protection against prosecution as a serving monarch.
Not to be morbid, but I kind of wonder if this is more of a “he wants to come home to die in his own country” situation. It does not seem like he’s in good health, and the whole “he doesn’t care if it ruins the monarchy” thing gives me “go out in a blaze of glory” vibes. I actually do believe that if Juan Carlos is in poor health, they should let him come back to Spain and live out his last days among his people and his family, polling be damned. Of course, there’s the expectation that Juan Carlos wouldn’t do anything to hurt his son’s popularity or the state of Spain’s monarchy, but again, I don’t think he really cares.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
He very well be trying to sabotage the monarchy to get back at his son, who kicked him out. This reads like a “if I can’t be King, Spain shouldn’t have a king at all” narcissism.
Maybe he needs to snake his way back in because the cash is getting low?
It could be but i suspect that he wants to come back as he is running out of money to pay for his exile and wants his son and the Spanish taxpayer to pay for his retirement. He is a greedy awful narcissistic little man who, like his wife, only cares for his position.
He is totally bitter about not only being forced to abdicate but also about losing tax payer funding so yeah, he does not care about how this affects his son and the Spanish monarchy.
If he does return you just know he will parade around and interfere. His ego is legendary.
Felipe and Letizia are about the only decent ones in that family – they could give the BRF a run for their money on how they treat married ins.
Franco picked him as his successor and rather then rule as a dictator he lead democratic reforms that transformed Spain. His later years were messy but he was handed absolute power and refused to take it because it was immoral. I don’t think he is a “little man,” I think he is a very big man who made mistakes in his personal life.
Yes, but those mistakes were illegal mistakes. Juan Carlos committed crimes, which he has to accept the consequences. No one forced this arrogant pr!ck to carry on illegal activities. Juan Carlos only wants to come back to Spain due to money issues and he doesn’t care how badly his return will be for the country and the monarchy.
I think this is probably a combination of financial reasons, health reasons (may want to die in Spain) and pure ego – he is probably thinking, “if I want to die in the country that I helped transition to democracy, then I should be able to do so.”
I wonder how much the average Spanish person is thinking about this? I have a few friends in Spain and they never mention the royals including JC, so not sure if its even on their radar.
The way this clown destroyed his legacy is wild. Choosing to let Spain move towards democracy instead of just being the dictator king Franco likely wanted him to be was huge. But in the end he turned out to be a sleazy, greedy criminal clown. Which makes me think his earlier decision back in the 70s was more pragmatic than anything.
Right?? It’s insane. After the transition, he could have just kept up with the ceremonial aspects of being monarch and kept a low profile and his legacy would have been secure, and instead he was greedy and corrupt.
I think many people start up wanting to do good, and then gradually get used to the “perks” of higher positions. They gradually get used to the internal culture of the higher ups. It might start with high end wining and dining, then countinue to nice vacations at luxury places owned by “friends”. After some years it’s the norm to get nice “gifts” from shady people, money under the table, big payments to “charity” for citizenships and honors, a nice property in exchange for a quiet nudge to councils or MPs to vote for “the right thing”. It’s the same way the british RF are working. They’re brought up in this culture, and see no wrong in it, because everyone is doing it. I don’t mean to write this as a defence of JC, he’s a corrupted, arrogant idiot, but I’ve seen these things happen on a smaller scale in my country (not RF).
I agree. Money is probably running out and maybe he’s dying so he wants to die in his home country.
I heard on the news that the prime minister of Spain more or less has washed his hands off the matter and said that it’s up to the king if his father can return to Spain or not. Felipe is in a difficult position because on one hand that is his father on the other if he wants to protect the monarchy it would be best to cut Juan Carlo loose. Also they said that they can’t really even do anything about his crimes because he had immunity as monarch when they were committed.
It will be a great day when all these monarchies are abolished.
I was about to say. Vote for Head of State every 5 years if you really need that kind of role in your country.
It’s time to abolish all monarchies, we they showing us how truly awful they are.
He can stay where he is. We’re fine here without him. Gracías!
I love that he wants brownie points simply for not being a dictator.
I mean, it was a little more than that. He was handpicked by Franco to be his successor and he was trained/brought up/educated with that in mind. When Franco died, he was instrumental in leading Spain to democracy. I don’t think he could have held on as dictator, so maybe the transition was inevitable, but it was a lot easier and more peaceful than it could have been (not to say that it was completely peaceful and easy, there were some, um, issues, but he did help.) When I lived in Spain 20 years ago, people at that point still really liked him because enough people remembered the transition, remembered the Franco regime, etc. His legacy was set and he has ruined it.
Yes, I understand the Franco and post Franco history.
*shrug* okay, I wasn’t sure that you did based on your comment.
I apologize for giving a snarky, hyperbolic response instead of the researched treatise you seemed to expect.
Felipe and Letizia have worked so hard to keep that monarchy alive after all of those scandals.
And now JC wants to come back and kill it.
Selfish doesn’t even begin to describe this man.
I don’t know, monarchies are outdated and in many cases damaging. If his return ends it then in a few years it could be seen as a patriotic act!
I really think this is an over-reaction. If the Spanish monarchy is so weak that a few scandals by an elderly king will topple it, then it might as well fall now. Let this former king return home to die, surrounded by his family. It’s not a big deal. What can they do to him anyway? He’s an old, sick man. I think Spaniards have a lot more pressing things to worry about than whether Juan-Carlos returns home.
Let him get back to Spain. If it helps to people be so mad and this awful family looses all their perks and are forced to abdicate I will be very happy. They are french right? They can go back there…
This royal family is far more interesting than the other one.
A more balanced coverage of the royal houses would be nice. I’d love to see more stories on the Spanish royals!
Where is his wife? Did she stay in Spain or go with him? Maybe he’d have liked exile better if he’d gone to a retirement community in Florida.
Sophia stayed in Spain.
Apparently she wasn’t willing to live with her husband and leave all of the glory and access to cash and protection.
Re Queen Sofia staying in Spain. After all JC’s humiliating affairs, why in the world would she have followed him into exile? I get that she probably likes the perks etc in Spain but I believe it was a ‘dynastic’ marriage not a love match. She more than fulfilled her role.
And she appears to have a loving relationship with her teenage granddaughters, so staying in Spain enables her to be an on-site grandmother.
He wants to be amongst his people? The ones he withheld money from, the ones he schemed? No thank you, poor health or not.
The monarchy needs to end. Let him go to Spain. I hope the people rebel and take the whole thing down.
Let him go back to Spain. If this helps end the monarchy, even better.