Madrid is awash with lucubrations on King Felipe VI's Christmas speech. Rarely has his figure been in such a weak position nor his words and silences interpreted so carefully. Right now, the king's main obstacle is he who gave him the crown: his father and current king emeritus, Juan Carlos I. A few months ago, Juan Carlos limited himself to communicating to the executive power his departure from the country in the direction of Abu Dhabi. His cousins, as he calls the satrapies of the Gulf, took him in while scandals about the origin and opacity of his heritage and details about his private life followed one another.
Juan Carlos I has a fragile health and at the end of last week he was admitted to a private clinic for covid, which has frustrated his desire to return to Spain for Christmas. Communication between the emeritus and the government, that is to say the elected representatives of the citizens, is today non-existent, and an attempt is being made to convey the idea that what affects Juan Carlos I is a private matter. The royals' evasion of taxes is not a private matter, nor is the possibility that Felipe might withdraw the title of emeritus, nor that the monarch might die abroad.
The institutional fragility in Spain is great and Juan Carlos's situation is not an anecdote, nor is it a matter simply for the tabloids, nor can it be covered up with the court press.
