Felipe VI asks politicians for exemplary behavior and avoids talking about his father

“Is the monarchy an ideal tool for crime?” Or the king “He took refuge in the pandemic to avoid talking about things that matter to citizens”, were some of the angry reactions who woke up the speech of Felipe VI of Spain on Christmas Eve, where he avoided talking specifically about the case of his father, Juan Carlos de Borbón, involved in a financial scandal.

King Felipe VI used his traditional Christmas Eve speech on Thursday to urge Spain’s rulers to show exemplary behavior, avoiding naming his father, when the country expected him to make a reference.

Felipe VI focused his Christmas Eve speech, the most symbolic and personal of those he gives at the end of the year, on the pandemic situation and the need to act together in the face of the economic crisis.

But much was expected from the reference he would make to his father’s situation, and in the last minutes of his speech, Felipe VI appealed for the obligation of “all without exceptions” to comply with “moral principles and ethical ”, that“ they are above all consideration, of any nature whatsoever, even personal or family. “

He then established a distance between what the reign of Juan Carlos I represented and his own, inspired by the “spirit of renewal” “from day one,” he said.

However, this reference has been criticized by left-wing parties and nationalists as being vague.

In the televised speech, the monarch said that citizens demand ethical principles “which bind us all without exception, and which are above all consideration of any kind, even personal or family.

For some, this message has been widely interpreted as a reprimand for alleged financial irregularities that have eclipsed the reputation of the once unpolluted King Emeritus Juan Carlos I. But the allusion was not enough for the others.

The case of Juan Carlos I

Juan Carlos shocked Spain in August when he moved to the United Arab Emirates after Spanish and Swiss prosecutors reportedly investigated him for possible financial mischief.

As the former Spanish head of state, Juan Carlos has immunity for any offense he may have committed during his reign from 1975 to 2014. In any event, the Spanish Supreme Court began investigating him this year following reports of an investigation in Switzerland for the payment of million euros in bribes of the late Saudi King Abdullah in 2008.

The former Spanish monarch is also the subject of another investigation into the alleged use that he, ex-Queen Sofía and other members of the royal family of credit card linked to foreign accounts that were not in their name.

Earlier this month, his lawyer said Juan Carlos paid tax authorities nearly 680,000 euros ($ 821,000) as a result of a voluntary income declaration that had not previously been disclosed.

Jean Charles has not been billed no crime, and his lawyers said he would return to Spain immediately if legal reasons so demand.

Felipe, who ascended to the throne after his father’s abdication in 2014, has tried to distance himself from Juan Carlos. In March, the Spanish monarch abandoned all inheritance that he could receive from his father. He also withdrew his annual allowance, which in 2018 stood at 194,232 euros ($ 216,000).

Despite these measures, the scandal has encouraged some left-wing parties to resume calls for a change in the form of government in Spain. from constitutional monarchy to republican. However, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, to which the leftist head of government Pedro Sánchez belongs, strongly supports Felipe, as well as the conservative opposition.

The critics

EH Bildu (Basques) spokesperson at the Congress of Deputies, Mertxe Aizpurua, was one of the voices that criticized Felipe’s speech.

The king “took refuge in the pandemic to avoid talking about things that matter to citizens and which have been at the forefront of today all this year,” he denounced.

“His speech is more enlightening for what he did not say, than for what he said, because he avoided talking about the crucial issues that are on the agenda today, both in media than in the population, “he continued.

And he criticized the fact that the king did not “the slightest reference, or if he did, it was tangential and unimportant, to the corruption cases that plague the royal family and that led his father to flee to the United Arab Emirates. “

From Podemos, they also criticized the king.

“There is a question that remains unanswered, is the monarchical institution an ideal tool for committing crimes?” Asked Podemos spokesman Rafa Mayoral.

The spokesperson criticized the fact that during the speech key elements of the “activity” of the Crown were not seen throughout this year 2020.

But it was not all a criticism. From right and center right, the king’s words have been praised.

For the president of the Conservative Popular Party, Pablo Casado, it is the speech of “hope and the future” that Spain needs in his opinion, and he defended the work of the king and the “exemplary character” that when it was proclaimed it evoked as a guide.

Source: agencies

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