A King under question

There are indications that the Spanish Press is starting to end its generosity on reporting items about the Royal Family

EDITORIAL COMMENT of www.typicallyspanish.com

There was a piece in last weekend’s Sunday Times in the U.K. about King Juan Carlos. Titled – ‘Popular king who quashed a coup falls from favour with his subjects’.
Written by Thomas Catan in Madrid, it claims that there are signs that the King is in danger of falling out with his subjects.

It mentions the Catalan Republican Party, Esquerra Republicana, campaigning for the Spanish Royal Family to reveal how much they cost the taxpayer, and the response from the King appointing a new Royal Auditor.

The story from Russia last year of the King shooting a bear, made an easy target with an intake of vodka was also repeated, and the recent controversy over the El Jueves magazine cartoon showing the Prince and Princess of Asturias having sex also repeated.

The Sunday Times piece does say that polls show most Spaniards like and respect the King, despite, as the paper puts it ‘his lavish lifestyle and playboy reputation’.

On first read the Sunday Times piece appears to be somewhat extreme, in that such criticism is rarely heard in Spain, and maybe that is just the point. Just as after the Spanish Civil War a pact of silence was agreed on both sides, it seems that after the transition to democracy a similar thing happened regarding the Royal Family. Now the heated political debate in Spain has expanded to engulf the Royals who are no longer so untouchable in the Spanish media.

The cold facts which will come from the appointment of the new Royal Auditor, Óscar Moreno Gil, will be interesting, although we already know the Spanish Royal family cost the taxpayer 8.29 million € a year – that compares to 11.4 million in the U.K.

And the gossip media have been speculating this summer that King Juan Carlos does not like Princess Letizia, and hence generally ignores her in public. There has even been some speculation about a possible abdication by the King who is 70 on January 5th. Prince Felipe will be 39 a few days after.

It’s not the first time that the Spanish Royal Family has been in the firing line. Paul Preston’s biography on Juan Carlos caused a real upset in 2003 when he suggested that the King had told a friend that he had shot his brother Alfonso dead in 1956 when he was 18. Preston says the official statement that the gun just went off was inadequate, reminding his readers that at the time the King was an adult cadet at a military academy who knew how to handle guns.

Preston got tons of hate mail after that, but the Zarzuela Palace made no official comment.

It will be interesting to see how the Spanish press handles itself over forthcoming months. It seems that royalty sells papers, and so we can expect the Spanish Royal family to be firmly in the news.

Although polls are notoriously unreliable, my experience is that the Royal Family in general, and the King in particular, are still well-loved in Spain.