Anatomy of a declassification

MadridThis week has been a new test for the parliamentary monarchy system that Spain adopted with the approval of the Constitution. The declassification of documents related to the attempted coup d'état of February 23 has generated several debates, especially regarding the possible return of the emeritus king and the conditions under which it could take place. In the face of the controversy, the royal household has been quick to react. From the Zarzuela Palace, it has been made very clear that Juan Carlos I can return to reside in Spanish territory whenever he decides. But the message contained a warning. If he does, he must be aware that this step implies that "he would have to reestablish his tax residence in Spain". This may be the decisive factor preventing his return. The investigations by the Prosecutor's Office into the emeritus king, which came to nothing, should not imply that once he is settled here again, a kind of guarantee of confidentiality and disinterest regarding his finances and assets will operate. Under these conditions, it is unlikely that Juan Carlos I will abandon the possibility he now has of coming and going as he pleases and settling here again peacefully, which in his case means being able to dispense with the public treasury's attentions that citizens usually receive.

Perhaps Feijóo did not consider this detail when he defended the emeritus king's return and relied on the declassification of the documents in question. It is true that these documents reinforce the idea that Juan Carlos I's actions on February 23 were decisive in stopping the coup attempt. However, both the reaction of the royal household itself and that of most political forces lead to the conclusion that the possibility of his return is not mature. And, unfortunately, it may never be. I say unfortunately because I think it is negative that the first head of state of this period of recovered democracy continues until the last days of his life outside the country in which he reigned for almost forty years. Considering the vicissitudes of our contemporary history – including a terrible Civil War – I would have preferred that a different evolution of the country's relationship with its first constitutional head of state had been possible. And while I agree that the mistakes and transgressions of the last years of Juan Carlos I's reign were very serious, unforgivable, it would have been better if his fully justified abdication had not been followed by his departure abroad, to Abu Dhabi, under protections he should not have had to resort to.

I followed the trial for the events of February 23 from the military facilities in the Madrid neighborhood of Campamento. I remember the widespread feeling among journalists that there were numerous unanswered questions about the responsibilities of that failed coup. The role of the civilian plot of the coup, as well as that of other army leaders who did not sit on the defendants' bench, remained unestablished. Nor was the role of the Higher Center for Defense Information (Cesid), the predecessor of the current National Intelligence Center (CNI), sufficiently explored. I also remember the insults and threats from Lieutenant General Milans del Bosch to General Armada, sitting next to him, considering that both were at the front of the line of the accused. This suggested that Milans del Bosch had felt deceived by Armada and that the latter had possibly given him certain guarantees of the coup's success.

Memory of the coup

In fact, the lieutenant general who brought the armored vehicles into the streets in Valencia explicitly stated during the trial that it had been a court-martial. Specifically, during his interrogation, he stated that he had prepared the coup with Tejero and Armada, and that the latter had promised him that the king was aware of it. The sentence did not give credibility to these statements. Milans del Bosch was sentenced to 30 years in prison, and Armada to 6, a sentence later increased by the Supreme Court to 30 years. However, the importance of the partial declassification of documents is that it confirms Juan Carlos I's decisive role in preventing the coup's success. In this regard, the event held in the Senate last Wednesday for the recovery of the book El Rey, by the jurist Manuel García-Pelayo, who was the first president of the Spanish Constitutional Court, has been equally interesting. The work recovers the debate between Juan Carlos I, Felipe González, and García-Pelayo himself on "the possible and necessary in the functions of the parliamentary monarch" for the king's first visit to Caracas.

The book contains several texts by the eminent jurist. "The measures taken by the king in the face of the events of February 23/24 – he wrote – [...] are based on the connection of various constitutional precepts, by virtue of which the exceptional situation could be faced, maintaining the validity of the Constitution, which was not suspended for a single moment." These are almost the exact words of Felipe González in the Senate, where – with Felipe VI in the front row – he added that the emeritus king's role in stopping the coup was not only "exemplary" but also "decisive".

The coup plotters, on the other hand, had prepared a text for February 23 stating that they were acting "for the good of Spain": "And we do not admit [anything] more than a government that establishes a true democracy without separatist autonomies." Remembering this from Catalonia is particularly important. Among the most popular versions of the night of February 23 was the supposed telephone conversation in which Juan Carlos I told the then president of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, something like "calm down, Jordi, calm down." The declassified documents do not clarify whether the episode occurred in these terms, but it is obvious that the entire experience of territorial distribution of power would have been annulled had the coup succeeded. Similarly, it is clear that by saving the Constitution from this threat, Juan Carlos I was able to keep the crown. What we should advocate for now is the approval of a new official secrets law that allows for detailed knowledge of all the events of February 23 and several subsequent episodes – such as those from 2014-2019 in Catalonia – surrounded by concealment and silence.