Miguel Ángel Revilla: the down-to-earth former president who gave Cantabrian anchovies to the king.

Madrid"He was my idol." Miguel Ángel Revilla's relationship with Juan Carlos I is a story of disappointment. The former president of Cantabria (Polaciones, 1943) recounted a few days ago in a media appearance and in other subsequent appearances on television programs, his natural habitat, as the emeritus king, has become the "disappointment" of his life. In tears and visibly hurt, the secretary general of the Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) has accused the emeritus king of "pettiness" for having taken legal action against him, a "commoner" whom the former monarch now accuses of slander, when until recently they had a "close" relationship.

Everything went wrong when the corruption scandals involving Juan Carlos I began to emerge. Revilla took it as a personal attack that the public figure he most admired and whom he had praised so much had turned out to be a "fraud." He dedicated himself to spreading it on the sets, where he is a regular guest. The 82-year-old politician, only five years younger than the emeritus king, recalls that his "veneration" for him began following Juan Carlos I's role in the attempted coup d'état of February 23, 1981. At that time, Revilla did not yet hold any public office, but was the director of a bank branch.

It wasn't until 1982 that he entered the Parliament of Cantabria as a deputy for the PRC (Republican Revolutionary Party), the party he founded in 1978. He has been its leader for more than 30 years. In 2003, he was elected regional president for the first time after two terms as vice president. Becoming the highest representative of the State in Cantabria gave him direct access to Juan Carlos I. As Revilla explains, their relationship went far beyond what is usual in such cases: they often spoke and shared meals and after-dinner conversations just the two of them. The attitude hearty that they shared made them highly compatible.

"Will you take me an anchovy?" This is what Juan Carlos I asked the former president of Cantabria during one of his visits to the Zarzuela Palace. Wherever he goes, Revilla acts as an ambassador and publicist for the products of his land. He traveled to Madrid loaded with stock to give as gifts to the emeritus king. Just as he later did with Felipe VI and with the Spanish presidents with whom he has coincided in the four terms he has governed, until 2023. "Why me?" he lamented these days about the demand, and urged the former monarch to travel to Santander to "explain it to his face."