Next June 19 will mark ten years since one of the most important dates in the history of Spain. The capital of our country dressed up for the proclamation of Felipe VI as King of Spain. A day to mark in which Juan Carlos’s son promised “a renewed monarchy for a new time” after a few very turbulent months full of controversies for the entire family.
The fear of talking about the royal family’s dirty laundry was finally lost and that caused the monarchy’s popularity to drop to historic lows. Something had to be done to change that if we wanted to continue with this form of government. (despite the limitations of the Crown. Without a doubt a historical moment in which a long journey and hard work began for Felipe, who had to separate himself from all the controversies that had involved the members of his family.
Months before the proclamation, the image of the Spanish monarchy was involved in controversy and headlines from around the world echoed everything that exploited Don Juan Carlos. A complicated situation that the Crown wanted to change. As? With a secret study that has come to light this June 2, which also marks a decade since the abdication of the King’s father.
The secret studies of the Crown
Why was Letizia so important in this change? Why was she “determinant” for Juan Carlos to leave the throne after 39 years? What role did Leonor and Sofía’s mother play? Alejandro Entrambasaguas, journalist, has revealed it in ‘Fiesta’. “More or less in 2012 the then head of the King’s House promoted a series of surveys that, although they were not published, helped the royal family to make the decision“, he began by saying.
“Thanks to these until now secret studies that were not published in the media, they realized that the image of Don Juan Carlos was falling at moments mwhile the popularity of the then princes and especially Doña Letizia grew in the same way.”, explained the collaborator of Emma García’s program. With these words Alejandro has made it clear that it was the great popularity of the journalist (and of course the scandals that surrounded the emeritus) that prompted the institution to force Sofía’s husband to leave his position so that his son could take his place.
Once on the throne, Felipe saw how the current situation forced him to make a drastic decision if he wanted to perpetuate the monarchy, which is why he had to renounce his father’s inheritance for “not being in line with the law,” a determination that also broke with their personal relationship. Since then, Juan Carlos chained one by one numerous unethical stories that came to light and that pushed him to leave our country to go to Abu Dhabi, where he has been living to this day in a luxury mansion valued at around 11 million euros located in the paradise Nurai Island.
The crown’s secret papers also agree with the latest polls on Letizia’s popularity. In fact, according to a survey carried out by the magazine ‘Hola!’, 61% of Spaniards think that she “has strengthened the monarchy” even though “it has not always been easy for it”. But it is not the only study, according to a report from the Contemporary Monarchy Study Network (REMCO) that young Spaniards, despite questioning the legitimacy of the Crown, prefer the stability of the institution over the upheaval that it would entail in right now a change of government in Spain.
Of course, the new generations are clear that the monarchy needs a great modernization. Some constant changes that seem to have been heard by the Spanish Royal House. In fact, last April Letizia announced three important changes in the organization: the first and most important was to put María Dolores Ocaña Madrid as the pfirst woman with a position of general director within the Crown.
