The emeritus king Juan Carlos of Spain met again this Monday with his son, Felipe VI, amid great expectation and with political controversy22 months after he decided to settle in Abu Dhabi due to the stir caused by his allegedly irregular business abroad.
(Read: Juan Carlos I is reunited in Madrid with his son after almost two years)
According to a statement from the Spanish royal house, Felipe VI and his father had “a long time of conversation” at the Palacio de la Zarzuela about “family issues” and “different events and their consequences in Spanish society” since he left for the United Arab Emirates.
(You are interested in: Juan Carlos I makes his first public appearance after his arrival from exile)
The 84-year-old monarch emeritus also met with Queen Letizia, as well as with his wife, Queen Sofía, his daughter Elena, several grandchildren and other relatives at the Palacio de la Zarzuela in Madrid, the official residence of Felipe VI.
The meeting, of which there are no photographs, included a family lunchin which Queen Sofía could not participate because she tested positive for coronavirus upon returning from a trip to Miami (USA).
Juan Carlos I, who remained in the palace for eleven hours, then went to the Madrid airport to return to Abu Dhabi on the same private plane that took him to Spain last Thursday.The Government and the Spanish royal house do not accept that he sleep in the palace, which was his residence for 57 years.
This has been the departure of the king emeritus from the palace of La Zarzuela after eleven hours meeting… or whatever.
(Images courtesy of the RTVE newscast) pic.twitter.com/LkOuiQovwx— _ (@El_TylerDurden) May 23, 2022
In this way, his private visit to Spain of just five days ended, the first since he left the country, on August 3, 2020, and which has sparked controversy and great media interest.
The Spanish Government reproached him this Monday for completing this first trip to Spain without giving explanations about his “unethical or exemplary” acts and for not having been “more careful” during the days he has been racing.
The first days, of wide public repercussion, were spent in the coastal tourist town of Sanxenxo (northwest Spain), where he was acclaimed to the cry of “Long live the king” several times by groups of supporters.
Also this Monday, fifty people with Spanish flags received him with cheers next to the main access to the Zarzuela site.
In the statement, the royal house recalls that the king emeritus, of his own free will, maintains his residence “permanently and stable in Abu Dhabi for personal reasons”as he communicated to his son in a letter on March 5.
It also highlights “his decision to organize his personal life and his place of residence in areas of a private nature, both during his visits and if he were to reside in Spain again in the future, to continue enjoying the greatest possible privacy.”
Juan Carlos I’s intention is to return to Spain around June 10 to participate in the world sailing championship in Sanxenxo, where he spent the night since last Thursday on this visit.
Government disagreement
According to press reports, the presence of the emeritus king in Spain and the attention it has caused in public opinion and the media has caused a certain degree of discomfort in his son, Felipe VI.
The spokesperson for the Spanish Government, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez, regretted this Monday that King Juan Carlos had lost the opportunity, on his return to Spain, to ask for forgiveness and give public explanations for their actions; he stressed that, with this attitude, he only damages his own image.
“Explanations, for what?”, the former head of state had responded last Sunday, when asked by the media in Sanxenxo if he planned to give them, alluding to the cases for which he was investigated and the tax regularizations he has faced in Spain.
the leftist party Canwho governs in coalition with the Socialists, demanded that Felipe VI give the explanations that his father did not give, whom he accused of “humiliating” the Spanish and democracy, “showing off impunity” and bragging about it.
“The republican horizon is the only way out,” said Podemos minister Ione Belarra on Twitter.
On the contrary, the conservatives accused the Executive, chaired by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, of “discrediting” the Head of State, while the extreme right reproached the “direct political attack” against the monarchy by critics of the king emeritus .
The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office filed this year the three investigations that it had opened for alleged millionaire commissions for the works of the high-speed train in Mecca (Saudi Arabia), for a case of alleged undeclared donations to the treasury and another of possible concealment of funds in tax havens.
He filed them because the facts had prescribed or had happened before 2014, when Juan Carlos I was protected by inviolability as head of state.
The emeritus king made two tax regularizations in Spain for 5.3 million euros ($5.6 million) for money donated by friends for his personal expenses.
EFE
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