"The Government has nothing to comment on. It is a personal decision that is not for us to assess. It refers to the area of your private life. These are decisions that he transmitted to King Felipe VI. No consideration to be made”. With these words, the spokeswoman for the central government, Isabel Rodríguez, responded yesterday, when she was asked, after the Council of Ministers, about the King's father's upcoming trip to the Galician town of Sanxenxo.
The single announcement of the visit, leaked 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 on numerous occasions for King Juan Carlos to give explanations about his financial irregularities now limits the affair to the private sphere but, according to the words of his spokesman, maintains the same position regarding to the accountability 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 "an indecency that we cannot allow as a country". More understanding 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 months, King Juan Carlos had been 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, the desire to return to the Galician town, but he did not give notice of the specific date, which he decided on the fly and without prior notice to the Zarzuela.
The institutional recognition received both in London, now for the invitation to lunch of King Charles III and during the funeral of Elizabeth II, and in Paris, where, with writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Cercas, he shared dinner with President Emmanuel Macron in the Elysée, the desire of King Juan Carlos to return to Spain increased, where his presence, however, does not have the same institutional consensus, nor among public opinion.
