“The Government has nothing to comment on. It is a personal decision that is not up to us to assess. It refers to his sphere of private life. They are decisions that he transferred to King Felipe VI. No consideration to make." With these words, the Government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, responded yesterday when asked, after the Council of Ministers, about the upcoming trip of the King's father to the Galician town of Sanxenxo.
The mere announcement of the visit, filtered by the entourage of King Juan Carlos, has reignited the controversy and highlighted the discomfort caused by his presence in Spain. The Government, whose president, Pedro Sánchez, has asked King Juan Carlos to explain his financial irregularities on numerous occasions, now limits the matter to the private sphere, but, according to the words of his spokesman, he maintains the same position regarding the rendering of accounts and the request for forgiveness that they demand from the previous head of state. Podemos, for its part, is more belligerent and yesterday, through deputy Javier Sánchez, described the return of King Juan Carlos as "indecency that we cannot allow as a country." More comprehensive is the attitude of the Popular Party, whose general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, asked yesterday for the "maximum respect" for the decisions of the emeritus, because he "is a Spanish citizen who can come to his country when he considers it appropriate."
For a few months, King Juan Carlos was preparing a new trip to Spain which, like the previous one, revolved around the dates on which regattas are held in Sanxenxo. At some point he communicated to his son, Felipe VI, his desire to return to the Galician town but did not notify the specific date that he decided on the fly and without prior notice to the Zarzuela.
The institutional recognition received, both in London, now due to the invitation to eat from King Carlos III and during the funeral of Elizabeth II, and in Paris, where, together with the writers Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Cercas, he shared dinner with President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee, increased the desire of King Juan Carlos to return to Spain, where his presence, however, does not have the same institutional consensus, nor among public opinion.
