Let's put ourselves in context. On November 13, 1971, the Diario Vasco launched the news that would soon be echoed by the agencies and the entire Spanish press: “The Infante Don Jaime de Borbón, Duke of Segovia, gave a reception in the great Luis XV hall of the Maurice hotel, Paris. The Duke confirmed the news of the courtship of his son, the Infante Don Alfonso de Borbón Dampierre, with María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú, Franco's granddaughter. The infant, the Spanish ambassador in Stockholm, has asked his father for authorization for the wedding, begging her to give him his blessing.
The Duke of Segovia did not bless the engagement, but considered it a blessing for the restoration of his dynastic rights, which he claimed in exile after having accepted the resignation demanded by his father, Alfonso XIII, having become deaf as a child. and consider him inadequate to lead a hypothetical monarchical restoration. Previously, his older brother, Alfonso, had also had to resign in order to contract a morganatic marriage with a Cuban of Spanish origin without royal blood, which removed him from the throne as the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III was in force.
So the third of the brothers, Juan, became the legitimate heir. Until after a long period of tug-of-war with Franco promoted by the monarchical sectors of the regime, he resigned in favor of his son Juan Carlos, who in 1968 was designated as the dictator's successor at the head of the Head of State with the title of king. The Kingdom of Spain finally recovered the figure of the monarch. Although that wedding changed things. Some sectors of the regime soon saw Alfonso as the link between the Franco family and the Bourbon tradition, although the commitment came two years late. In any case, Alfonso had popular support, which the regime also greatly needed.
To gauge the situation, the regime decided to turn to science and commissioned the Institute of Public Opinion (IOP), predecessor of the current Sociological Research Center (CIS), two demographic studies. The first about the knowledge of the appointment of Prince Juan Carlos as future head of state and the second about the figure of his cousin Alfonso.
On a universe of 1,000 interviewees of different ages, social segments and geographical origins, the results were still striking, both due to the lack of knowledge of how the succession had been articulated and due to the division over whether the monarchy was a good model of government, also revealing an important generational gap. It is worth taking into account the political context in which the study was carried out and the relative freedom with which the interviewees responded.
Even so, 73% of those surveyed did not remember how the appointment of Prince Juan Carlos had been reached, despite the fact that it had occurred just two years earlier. And in a question with induced multiple responses about the monarchy, 59% of respondents agreed with both the statement “the people want to be able to elect their rulers,” particularly the youngest ones, and with the statement “it all depends.” of what the king is like.” A not inconsiderable 54% subscribed to the statement “it is rooted in Spanish tradition and history.” And although 68% found the figure of the prince “likeable”, 57% indicated that they would not like to see him more frequently on television.
The survey, logically, was not published. And after the commitment of Alfonso de Borbón and María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú, those responsible for IOP began to probe the figure of the infant among public opinion. In this case, the survey is not that it was not published, but that it was not even completed and ended up leading to the “resignation” of the director of this organization, Juan Ramón Cercós.
Their partial results, in this case on a universe of between 249 and 535 people depending on the questions, not only made it clear that Spanish society was aware of the marital commitment (89% of those surveyed), but they knew that the Infante was Spain's ambassador to Sweden (76%) – his diplomatic appointment coincided with that of his cousin Juan Carlos as Franco's successor – although more than 55% declared they had not heard of him before this announcement.
Although the most striking thing is that 47% of those interviewed declared that Alfonso de Borbón could claim inheritance rights to the crown compared to 39% who indicated the opposite. It is worth highlighting the tendentiousness of the wording of the question, which appealed to “his status as the eldest grandson of Alfonso
Likewise, 69% were clear that Alfonso met all the requirements (royal lineage, male, Spanish, being 30 years old, being Catholic and swearing to the Fundamental Laws) to succeed the head of state with the title of king. To put our finger on the issue, those interviewed had to answer whether, had the marriage engagement occurred a few years earlier, the appointment of Juan Carlos de Borbón as future king would have occurred anyway. The yes vote, in this case, dropped to 53%.
The field study was abruptly interrupted when it coincided with the marriage proposal, which took place on December 24 in a solemn ceremony held in El Pardo in the presence of the entire Franco family and princes Juan Carlos and Sofía and a good part of the families. Spanish and Greek royals, and with the dictator's end-of-year message, published in the press with a title that could not be more explicit: "The functions attributed to the prince ensure the future of the country."
