Like many Spaniards, only repeated reading of Article 1 of the Constitution has cleared my doubts to know for sure the century in which I live, because I have come to question it after the latest episodes known about the former Head of State. “1. Spain is constituted as a social and democratic State of Law, which advocates as superior values of its legal system freedom, justice, equality and political pluralism. 2. National sovereignty resides in the Spanish people, from whom the powers of the State emanate. 3. The political form of the Spanish State is the parliamentary Monarchy”. Yes, 21st century.
Years ago I declared that the Emeritus King had been living off the rents of 23F for a long time, because it is only fair to recognize that without his help in aborting the coup d'état our recent democratic history would have been left on the sidelines. Nobody imagined that such valuable income could be squandered in such a short time and for such mundane reasons: now a hunt, then a house, then a penthouse, later a gift... In short, a concatenation of unflattering attitudes of the one who, in his Christmas speeches, demanded exemplarity, transparency and defended equality before the law, and that have led him to such a disaster that not even planned by the worst of his enemies.
Don Juan Carlos has put the Crown in a bind, has left our country as a bad joke on the international stage and only has one way out. The Emeritus King must assume his responsibilities, but not only the judicial ones, if any, but those inherent to the one who, by reason of his extinct Head of State, enjoyed immunity and inviolability. Don Juan Carlos has the right to the presumption of innocence, of course, but he also had the presumption of being the first of the Spaniards in honesty and honorability. And I say it in the past because, regardless of statutes of limitations and tax regularizations, he has defrauded the trust that millions of Spaniards had placed in him.
It is true that he has not fled, but it is also true that he has left without saying goodbye. There must be a reason. It only remains to be hoped that in the end everything will be known and that everyone will choose the interpretation of the facts they want, because in matters of the heart reason does not rule and in the monarchy, from what we see, there is a lot of that. In spite of everything, the trips of the still Emeritus monarch should not distract us from what is truly important, which is to fight with all our strength and united against the cursed economic and social effects of the pandemic, because everything else would be nothing more than worrying distraction maneuvers. Only that.
By the way, if I were him and for the stability of the institution and the reign of Felipe VI, I would beg Abascal and Casado not to defend him anymore, because at this rate they are going to achieve the opposite of the end they say they are pursuing.
*Manuel Fajardo Palarea, PSOE senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.