Disappointment over the declassification of official papers from the February 23 coup attempt, which does not force a review of any of the dominant narratives about the affair. In Madrid there is a rare coincidence among newspapers and, for a moment, they bury the hatchet to all headline in the same sense: that the abdicated king stopped Tejero's attempt to suspend democracy. The spirit of the Transition is thus revived, even if only for a single day. And if you look closely, you can see that El País, despite everything, puts a filter on it. While Abc and El Mundo write “The king stopped the coup” and La Razón even uncorks champagne to say that the papers “crown Juan Carlos”, the Prisa newspaper writes “The secret archives of 23-F support the role of Juan Carlos I”. That is to say, they do not necessarily endorse them, they merely note that the documentation reinforces the canonical account.
Meanwhile, in Catalonia, skepticism is greater. La Vanguardia: “The coup plotters of 23-F attributed the failure to ‘leaving the king free’”. Again, it does not place Juan Carlos on a pedestal, but rather records the disappointment of Tejero & Co. And, from here, the doubt grows. El Periódico writes that “the coup plotters of 23-F abandoned Tejero”, thus not granting the ex-king the honor of a restorative headline and, furthermore, reminds in a subtitle that Juan Carlos met with those involved during the trial. El Punt Avui directly contradicts that the documents elevate the abdicated monarch and assures that “they do not clarify the king's role”. ARA also recalls that there are unknowns and headlines “The documents support the official version”, a phrase that emphasizes the distance that exists, or may exist, between the truth sanctioned by the government and reality. The 23-F presents shades of gray, so the press, if it wishes, has room to continue investigating and the king's role, even with the declassified papers in hand, deserves continued questioning.
