The challenge to Pedro Sánchez hidden in the memoirs of Juan Carlos I

ParisIt is unusual for a king—even an emeritus one—to speak in the first person about his life and reign. But it is even less common for him to speak about politics, and to do so criticizing a government that is still in power. Juan Carlos I does so in Reconciliation,his memoir published this Wednesday In France. King Felipe VI's father reviews historical events, from the end of the Franco regime to his current "exile" in Abu Dhabi, and for the first time publicly criticizes Pedro Sánchez's government, which he accuses of imposing its will over his ambitions, even now that he lives in retirement thousands of kilometers from Spain. "Even today I have to respect the wishes" of the Royal Household and the government, he laments.

Juan Carlos I does not hide his resentment towards Sánchez's administration, which he emphasizes governs with "the radical left" and the Catalan separatists. The emeritus king accuses him of weakening democracy every time he has supposedly criticized the figure of the king. "When the current government discredits me, it weakens our Constitution, calls into question the progress of the democratic transition and our reconciliation," he states.

The emeritus king also accuses Sánchez's government of pressuring Felipe VI to withdraw his allowance and of being behind the rift between them. According to Juan Carlos I, excluding him, far from saving the Crown, eroded it. "I believe that the Royal Household, by excluding me, is weakening the monarchy. I fear this represents a crack that will break the foundations, with the risk of everything teetering at the slightest storm," he writes. And he adds in the following paragraph: "The current government seems pleased."

Unity of Spain

Juan Carlos I also warns that the monarchy is what guarantees the stability and unity of Spain in the face of separatist impulses. "The monarchy, as guardian of democratic values, ensures the stability, permanence, and unity of Spain, and is indispensable in our country, which has a tendency toward division." In the introductory chapter, he takes the opportunity to attack separatist parties, without explicitly naming any, and lumps them together with the far right, parties "that would like to disintegrate the country," according to the former monarch. These groups "would not have the freedom to criticize me if I had not fought, against all odds, to achieve it," he maintains.

Juan Carlos I also harbors a strong resentment toward the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, for not having censured a public consultation in 2018 organized by a citizens' platform that asked for a preference between monarchy and republic. "The head of government or his spokesperson did not condemn it, which amounts to authorizing it," he states. "Today, ministers can openly denigrate the Crown without any consequences," the emeritus king writes.

Juan Carlos also points the finger at the justice system. He speaks bitterly of the decision by the Attorney General between 2020 and 2022, Dolores Delgado, to open an investigation into Juan Carlos I for alleged commissions in the awarding of the AVE high-speed rail contract to Mecca to Spanish companies and the existence of an account with 10 million euros in the name of the former head of the head of the head of the head. According to the emeritus king's account, the former Minister of Justice "turned the judicial investigations into a witch hunt, a moral judgment that affected my entire reign and my political actions." However, all the investigations against the former monarch have been filed by the public prosecutor's office itself due to the inviolability of the emeritus king and the statute of limitations for some crimes.

Praise for Franco

In his memoirs, Juan Carlos I dedicates a chapter to recounting his arrival in Spain during the final years of the Franco regime, a period he describes as "a very interesting time for Spain, which was beginning to take off economically." He explains his close relationship with the dictator Francisco Franco, whom he praises without any hesitation and with whom he reveals he maintained an almost father-son relationship. They met regularly at El Pardo Palace, and the then-aspirant to the throne would visit him in Galicia during the holidays, at the Pazo de Meirás. Despite Spain having endured 40 years of dictatorship, the emeritus king spares no praise for Franco, whom he admired and whom he never once refers to as a dictator: "I respected him enormously, I appreciated his intelligence and his political acumen," he emphasizes. "If I have been able to be king, it is thanks to him. I have never allowed anyone to criticize him in my presence," writes Juan Carlos I, who also underlines that "we cannot simply erase 40 years of our history."

Clear errors

Beyond the praise for Franco, the emeritus king's memoirs are an attempt to whitewash his mistakes, a way to settle scores with those who have questioned his integrity, and, above all, a vindication of his role during the Transition. "We have forgotten it, but Spain in 1975 was the last Western autocratic bastion. And after General Franco's death, the fear of a second civil war was real," he writes.

The emeritus king acknowledges some errors, such as accepting $100 million as a "gift" from the King of Saudi Arabia or his extramarital affair with Corinna Larsen. "I am no saint," he admits. But at the same time, he tries to minimize and justify them. "I have made mistakes [...] out of love and friendship. Out of overconfidence and also out of blindness," he states. However, at the end of the book, he confesses that when he dies, he hopes to be buried in Spain "with honors." "Spain will decide, History will judge us," he concludes.