The king’s signature

WriterOnce the new president of Catalonia has been duly invested by the Catalan Parliament, protocol dictates that the king of Spain must sign the appointment. Could he choose not to sign it? In a parliamentary democracy, where the king reigns but does not govern, such a possibility does not exist, politically speaking. The king’s signature is an administrative formality, rather than an option, once the institution responsible has made its decision in accordance with the regulations. Allowing the king to decide whether to sign or not —an option that many are bound to be in favour of, if it were possible— would mean substantially changing the role of the monarchy and, thereby, altering a central, key component of the Spanish political order. In other words, it would mean a regime change. We would be moving to another kind of monarchy. If the king has the option of deciding if he’s going to sign, according to whether he likes what he signs, we cease to be a parliamentary monarchy and become (or return to) something else. It wouldn’t even be necessary for the king to actually refuse to sign the presidential appointment: merely being presented with the choice of whether to sign or not would suffice. It would signal a true regime change in Spain. In other words, a coup d’état.