Chaos of Spain's monarchy
The fall of Juan Carlos, who is respected by some in Spain for creating a democracy in the country after the death of dictator Franco, began in 2018 in Switzerland when a prosecutor started an investigation into the ex-king's mury finances. The prosecutor opened an investigation into Juan Carlos' ex-mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and the former king's lawyer and financial adviser, who are both based in Geneva. The prosecutor's ongoing inquiry centres on an £80 million gift to Juan Carlos from the king of Saudi Arabia in 2008, and whether it was in connection with the awarding of a £6.7 billion contract for a Spanish company to build a high-speed railway from Medina to Mecca three years later. He discovered the existence of two offshore funds, connected to Swiss bank accounts.
One of these accounts was the Panama-based Lucum Foundation, set up to the receive the £80 million gift, and which was liquidated in 2012, with almost the entire original amount donated to Juan Carlos' ex-mistress. She had the contract signed by Juan Carlos demonstrating that the donation was a gift and not a money-laundering scheme. The other account was Fondation Zagatka, registered in Liechtenstein and whose beneficiary is Alvaro de Orleans, a distant cousin of the king. His account received multi-million payments from overseas business deals while spending more than £5 million on private jet flights used by Juan Carlos.
In June, prosecutors at Spain's Supreme Court announced the start of the first investigation into Juan Carlos in his own country, to establish whether the former king could be accused of any crimes related to the Saudi money. Hints of corruption were frequent during his reign. These revelations were not helped when in 2018, online newspaper El Espanol published a series of articles based on taped conversations between Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Jose Villarejo, a former police investigator currently in jail. Unbeknown to Juan Carlos' ex-mistress, Villarejo recorded his conversations.
Speaking to him in 2015, Juan Carlos' ex-mistress, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, described what she alleged to be Juan Carlos' clumsy efforts to launder money. She mentioned her surprised at being gifted a property worth £3 million by the king of Morocco, before being asked to pass it over to the former Spanish monarch. She said in the tapes, "The king has no concept of what is legal and what isn't."
The Spanish newspaper El Pais also revealed how he flew into Switzerland in 2010 to knock on the door of his wealth manager and hand him a briefcase containing £1.9 million in cash which he said was a gift from the ruler of Bahrain. In an unprecedented statement by Spain's Royal Household, it was announced that Juan Carlos would no longer be granted his annual allowance of some £200,000 from the official state budget.
The Royal Household has refused to comment on any of the revelations concerning what it now refers to as Juan Carlos' private life. But reports of millions of euros being delivered to the royal family's Zarzuela residence by Juan Carlos and his hired assistance and the emergency of a new tape by his ex-mistress where she stated that the former king used his wealth to pay for all of his family expenses, does not help the current King Felipe - Juan Carlos' son.
It was confirmed today that Juan Carlos is in the United Arab Emirates, two weeks after ti was announced that he was leaving the country in an attempt to protect the crown from scrutiny over his financial dealings. The royal household declined to specify whether he was in Abu Dhabi or to answer questions about how long he intends to stay there.
The issue is that Juan Carlos facing up to allegations of money laundering seem very slim. Spain's Socialist-led coalition government has rejected calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the king's finances, but it has signalled its distance from Juan Carlos. In July, the prime minister Pedro Sanchez stated: "It's obvious that collectively Spaniards are hearing some unsettling reports that disturb all of us, and which disturb me too. But I think there are some things worth mentioning in all this. First, that there are some media that aren't looking the other way - on the contrary, they're reporting all this. Second, there's a justice system that's taking action. Third - and this is something I'm grateful for - the royal house itself had distanced itself following these disturbing reports."
Additionally, in the 1978 constitution, it states that "the person of the king is inviolable and shall not be held accountable." This means that the King of Spain enjoys immunity and is not subject to legal responsibility. He cannot be legally prosecuted as all the actions of money laundering are related to before his abdication. The King of Spain will therefore never be prosecuted and it is unlikely that he would be prosecuted if it was proven that he or she had committed a crime. The legal justification for this royal immunity is that the King is mandated by the Constitution to fulfill several roles as the head of state, thus, the King is obligated to perform his actions and fulfill his duties, so the King cannot be judged for actions that he is constitutionally obligated to perform.
It will be even more unlikely given that Juan Carlos was a popular figure. In 1981, when armed police fired shots over the heads of terrified MPs in the Spanish parliament in an attempted coup d-etat, Juan Carlos made a televised address to the nation backing democracy and faced down the plotters. The coup failed. Despite this, some people of Spain are using this scandal to promote a seismic shake-up by abolishing its monarchy. Some commentators however believe a republic would not be the answer for a country riven by divisive politics.
Pilar Eyre, a writer and royal expert, doubted Spain would become a republic because the country's two main parties supported the monarchy. She stated: "The two main parties, the Socialists and the People's Party are in favor of the monarchy and it needs their support to change the constitution and allow a referendum on a republic."
This has not stopped the emergence of protests in Madrid where furious Spaniards have demonstrated against the monarchy. The current King Felipe has attempted to settle the anger by refusing to accept any personal inheritance from his father when the corruption allegations first surfaced. The only outcome of this scandal is perhaps Juan Carlos giving back some of the money which is involved but this would not be anytime soon. Ultimately, there is no doubt that the current monarchy is now facing an uphill struggle to convince many of the population of its validity.
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