This week the first edition of ReconciliationA book that, as its title suggests, the emeritus king supposedly wrote (or dictated, which he does more for himself) with the aim of making peace. But with whom does Juan Carlos want to reconcile? With one of his lovers? With all of them? With his family ("they don't care about me anymore," he laments)? With the subjects (and taxpayers) of the Kingdom of Spain? With the Spanish Treasury, which he repeatedly and consistently defrauded while he was head of state? With the international lobbies with whom he has done business throughout his life and who now shelter him in Abu Dhabi? (Shelter him while the subjects and taxpayers of the Kingdom of Spain continue to foot the bill.) It hurts to say, and everything indicates that the book is not going to clarify this.
The book's sentimental alibi seeks to present Juan Carlos as a sad, longed-for godfather, whom his own people have abandoned. This image is difficult to reconcile with the character who regularly appears in Sanxenxo enjoying regattas and seafood feasts in the company of his friends, and who, when asked if he ever plans to give explanations, answers, from inside a chauffeured car,Explanations of what?The attempt to elicit pity is even offensive to the elderly who have truly lost everyone and are condemned to suffer a lonely old age, a real social scourge that is becoming more widespread every day and that says a lot (it says everything) about the kind of society we have built, controlled by sharks and unscrupulous individuals. The maneuver to try to win people's favor by pretending to be a helpless old man whom no one cares about anymore hides the attempt to consolidate and impose a central idea, which is the true argument of the book and of all the official discourse surrounding the figure of Juan Carlos from now on: that he, Juan, brought about the realization that democracy was possible thanks singularly and fundamentally to him, that we citizens owe him that democracy. He won't be the only one saying it in his book: we will hear and read this message ad nauseam, repeated by dozens of loudspeakers at full volume, by politicians, businesspeople, powerful figures throughout Spain, and, of course, by himself.
It is, of course, a false message, which attempts to justify the role of an institution, the monarchy, which has subtracted far more than it has added to the construction of a true democracy in Spain. The insistence on trying to glorify Juan Carlos, and absolve him of his crimes and misdeeds before a corrupt public opinion, affected by a corruption that is not limited, either, to the person of Juan Carlos de Borbón.
