King's Address

From the BBC:

“Spain's King Felipe VI makes veiled dig at self-exiled father”

Spain's King Felipe VI made a veiled allusion to his self-exiled father's scandals in his Christmas address, saying "ethics are above family ties". It was a small interlude in a speech centring on the coronavirus pandemic, where the king thanked heath workers. The former king, Juan Carlos, fled to Abu Dhabi in August as corruption allegations mounted. Juan Carlos has denied wrongdoing but his departure heightened debate about the future of the country's monarchy. There has been much speculation as to whether Felipe VI would reference the controversy in the annual speech. According to El Pais newspaper, many felt it would be impossible to ignore in an end-of-year address, though no-one was sure how he would go about acknowledging the "elephant in the room".  Though he did not specifically mention his father, many felt the connection was clear. "In 2014, during my induction into parliament, I referred to the moral and ethical principles that citizens expect of us. Principles that apply to us all without exception, and that prevail over all considerations, whatever their nature may be, personal or familial," said the monarch. He recognised that many families were dealing with grief and spending the holidays apart. And he spoke of a "great national effort" was needed to overcome the difficulties Covid-19 had caused.

What happened to King Juan Carlos? He ruled for close to 40 years, before handing power to his son in 2014. This decision came after a corruption investigation involving his daughter's husband and a controversial elephant-hunting holiday in the middle of Spain's financial crisis. In June this year, Spain's Supreme Court launched a further investigation into Juan Carlos's alleged involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after the ex-king lost his immunity from prosecution following his abdication. Then in August, the ex-king made the shock announcement that he was leaving Spain. He has denied all allegations against him and said he would be available for interviews with prosecutors.

^ It’s been a tough 2020 for Spain.

First they were abandoned by the European Union (so much for “European Unity”) and its 26 other member countries and made to fend for themselves (along with Italy) against a massive wave of Covid-19 with a 1st National Lockdown from  March 14th to May 9th.

The EU (ie. Germany since it runs and operates the EU) only stepped in at the beginning of the Summer so German tourists could vacation on the Spanish beaches (interesting note the first Covid case in Spain was from a German tourist in La Gomera, the Canary Islands on January 31, 2020.) A Second National Lockdown has been in place since October 25th and is expected to last until May 2021.

Then there was when their former King, Juan Carlos (who was groomed by Franco himself for 28 years under his 1936-1975 Dictatorship and then reigned from 1975-2014 which brought so-called Democracy to Spain even though the 1977 Amnesty Law and the Pact of Forgetting  - where the crimes, including murder and human rights abuses with 400,000 Spaniards held in prisons, Concentration Camps and forced labor battalions, committed under the Franco Dictatorship and those who committed them, possibly even the former King himself, are legally allowed to be forgotten and not dealt with or brought to justice and is still mostly enforced today despite a 2007 Historical Memory Law being made) fled the country overnight in August and is now living in the United Arab Emirates because of Spanish, European Union, Swiss and other investigations into numerous corruption claims made during his reign as King and after his abdication.

 The former King left his wife (Queen Sofia) of 58 years when he fled the country and several paternity lawsuits are now in the courts to force Juan Carlos to take paternity tests for children he supposedly had with different women since the 1950s – until his abdication in 2014 he had Complete Sovereign Immunity from all of this.

His son, the reigning King Felipe VI, has to disown his father and his scandals and corruption claims and prove his own innocence – which he started to do with his annual Christmas Address.

This has placed a heavy burden on the Spanish Monarchy not seen since the 1930s. Juan Carlos’ actions, including fleeing the country rather than staying to clear his name,  have forever placed a dark stain on the Spanish Monarchy as well as on Spain itself. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55440948