A Monarchy in Ruins

Incapacitated. That is the verdict that any reasonable person would come to after seeing the pathetic speech that [Spanish King] Juan Carlos gave in honor of the military holiday celebrated on January 6. We all age physically and there comes a time when it's time to step back from the front lines. For Juan Carlos, that moment came months ago and his sad attempt at holding on to the throne has led to a very public predicament of incalcuable consequences. Incalculable for the king himself, but also for the monarchy as an institution. Juan Carlos is simply not up to acting as head of the Spanish state and refusing to realize something so obvious makes no sense at all.

But if that weren't enough, the very next day his daughter was called again to trial, for corruption and tax fraud. And unleashes an international scandal that ties one thing with another and ends up directly questioning the monarchy. It's true that so far, they are just charges, and not a conviction. And that many things can happen along the way. She already got out of one set of charges and I imagine she'll try to get out of these—with the servile and rather unorthodox help of [Catalan lawyer] Roca i Junyent. The judge, however, is a lot more serious than he was a few months ago. And he seems to have no lack of very carefully documented decriptions backing up each one of the criminal accusations leveled at Juan Carlos' daughter.

The image of the Spanish monarchy couldn't be more tarnished. They say that Juan Carlos tried to make an impressive appearance at the military holiday precisely in order to cover up or lessen the repercussion of his daughter's looming charges. But the cure has been worse than the ailment. He didn't save his daughter from scandal, and instead, made a mess of things for himself. And on top of it, we are offered surreal explanations, like the faulty light on the podium, that diehard monarchists want to use as an excuse.

It's been a long time coming, but after these forty-eight hours, only fanatics can keep believing that the Spanish monarchy still makes sense and is useful in political terms. Either they will have an amazing stroke of luck, or else the republics, ours and that of others, will arrive very soon.

director@vilaweb.cat

• Xarxes socials
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
• Envia l'article
• Imprimeix l'article
• Converteix a PDF

Tweet

 

Only fanatics can keep believing that the Spanish monarchy still makes sense and is useful in political terms.