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ARCHIVED - King Juan Carlos of Spain abdicates
The Spanish Monarch said the time has come for the next generation to take over
It has been announced this morning by President Mariano Rajoy that King Juan Carlos I of Spain is to abdicate from the throne in favour of his son Prince Felipe after a reign of 39 years.
There had been widespread speculation for some time that this announcement might be in the offing: over the last few years the 76-year-old’s health has been frail, and there has also been a good deal of undesirable publicity surrounding the royal family.
A lot of this bad press has centred on the King’s daughter Princess Cristina and her husband Iñaki Urdangarín, both of whom are currently involved in the Nóos corruption case, but the Head of State himself has not been exempt from criticism due to his close friendship with Princess Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, his hunting accident while shooting elephants in Botswana, and the taxation speculation surrounding the cost of running the Royal Family. Questions about the relevance of a monarchy in this day and age have also been heightened since the onset of the economic crisis, although Prince Felipe is generally popular and well regarded.
In his speech to the nation, though, Juan Carlos made no mention of either his health or the negative publicity, concentrating instead on the need for a new generation to take the reins after the lessons which have been learnt during the economic crisis over the last few years. Perhaps significantly he referred to the "mistakes which have been made", but his speech remained fluent and composed as he thanked Queen Sofía and the nation as a whole for the support he has received over the last four decades.
What few will dispute in the coming weeks is that, whatever the rights and wrongs of the monarchy in the 21st century, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias played a crucial role in Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, particularly during the failed coup d’état in 1981, and that for this alone a debt of gratitude is due to him.
For now, though, the wheels of the democracy whose development Juan Carlos has overseen will be set in motion in order to enable him to officially relinquish his duties as soon as possible.
According to Sr Rajoy, the King is convinced that now is the best time for him to hand over his role, and an extraordinary meeting of Cabinet has been called in order to pass a law giving validity to the abdication. The President says that the process will be another expression of the “maturity of our democracy”, and also expressed his utmost faith in Prince Felipe to follow in his father’s footsteps as King Felipe VI.
Image: Copyrighted. The King signing the abdication papers this morning in the Palace of Zarzuela. Efe. Image ceded by the Royal Household.
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