King Juan Carlos has landed after 7 pm this Thursday at the Peinador airport (Vigo) from where he will travel by car to the Galician town of Sanxenxo, where he will stay at Pedro Campos' house until Monday. There he plans to attend a sailing regatta starting tomorrow that will take place over the weekend. The emeritus king, who left Spain on August 3, 2020, will travel to Madrid next Monday to meet at the Palacio de la Zarzuela with Felipe VI, Queen Sofía and the other members of his family before returning to Abu Dhabi, where he has been in self-exile for 655 days.
The private plane, registered in Aruba with the P4-BFL badge, landed at the Vigo airport after seven in the afternoon, after almost eight hours of flight from the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where the king emeritus maintains his residence . Juan Carlos I has been received by his friend Pedro Campos, with whom he will travel by car to Sanxenxo to participate this weekend in the InterRías trophy of the 6m class 2022 Spain Cup circuit, in which the boat of the former head of state, the "Bribón", defends the title achieved in 2019.
Throughout today, the Government has repeatedly insisted on the need for the King Emeritus to give explanations about the information that has appeared in recent years about his irregular finances that forced his departure from the country. The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, the Second Vice President and Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, and the Minister of Social Rights, Ione, have done so with a different tone and intensity. Belarra. The socialists Calviño and Llop have limited themselves to asking for explanations while the dwellings have gone further and have summoned the king emeritus to "be accountable" to the citizens.
On the other hand, the PP and the rest of the right-wing parties have welcomed the return of the former sovereign. In addition, the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, has criticized that members of the Government censor the visit: "The Government has nothing to say if a Spaniard can or cannot come to their country, the only thing missing was that a Spaniard could not come when he wanted ", something basic that "must respect", has said.
In any case, the King Emeritus, after several frustrated attempts, has seen his wish to return to Spain come true, even if it is for a visit and in compliance with the conditions agreed with the House of the King that prevent him from using, even for a few days, his former private rooms in the Zarzuela Palace. That has been the main stumbling block after the inconvenience of King Juan Carlos occupying what, in addition to the family residence, is the seat of the Head of State, was sent to the Casa del Rey from Moncloa.
The return of who was Head of State from November 22, 1975 to June 17, 2014 has not been an easy road. When he announced his departure, on August 3, 2020, he proposed his departure from Spain as a short period with the intention of alleviating the pressure that, after the appearance of information regarding his alleged fiscal and economic irregularities, was being exerted on the Crown. .
It was a departure, if not hasty, if little prepared since until mid-August it was not known that his destination was Abu Dhabi. It was said that he could be in the Dominican Republic, in Portugal and in some other place, but it was not confirmed until he himself authorized Zarzuela to make his location known. It seemed that it would only be a stopover of weeks, which lasted for months, and that on that Christmas of 2020, King Juan Carlos would return to Spain. It was not like that, every time he planned a return trip, information appeared, each more compromising, about alleged fiscal and economic irregularities that cast shadows on the exemplary nature of his performance.
King Juan Carlos did not return for Christmas 2020, nor in the summer of 2021, nor on any other date. The right conditions were never produced and, at the same time, every time a possible return was outlined, the Government paralyzed the operation and the Zarzuela tried to convince the so-called emeritus of the inconvenience of his return to Spain. The reasons: the polarization of public opinion and, above all, the use of the controversial figure of King Juan Carlos to destabilize the Crown.
King Juan Carlos, whether he liked what was asked of him or not, has always been obedient to the instructions sent to him from the Zarzuela. His interest has always been not to harm his son, he said so in the statement he issued on the occasion of his departure and he has done so, just two months ago, when after the filing of the investigations by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, there is no cause against him that prevents his return to Spain. Another thing is that the repeated reports, some not always accurate and even less objective, have created a state of opinion among a large part of the citizenry that has overshadowed the obvious merits of the reign of King Juan Carlos. On the other hand, from the Zarzuela there has been an attempt to separate the figure of the previous head of state from the reign of his son, Felipe VI, which has contributed to a family distancing beyond the institutional one.
The time that has elapsed since his self-exile has been too long and his definitive return, for the time being, has become almost impossible. For this reason, on March 7, King Juan Carlos officially announced that, although he intended to visit Spain to see his family and friends, his intention was to keep his residence in Abu Dhabi. In that decision, the condition, imposed by Moncloa, of not using a publicly owned residence was decisive.
The repeated requests from the Prime Minister that King Juan Carlos, despite being exonerated from any position, must give explanations for his actions, have also made his return difficult. The figure of King Juan Carlos, who for decades had the consensus of the entire political arc, has been during these months the object of polarization and continuous debate that has also been used to focus the debate on the role of the Crown and even about the convenience of the continuity of the monarchical institution.
This first trip fulfills the longing for a desired return and will also be a kind of test to determine if in the future these visits will be more and more frequent until the formula is found to make it final. King Juan Carlos is 84 years old and although his health is generally good, he has mobility problems; his greatest fear and his great tragedy would be to die outside of Spain. His desire is to lead a private and discreet life and, in no case, interfere in the reign of his son, Felipe VI.
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