The Flight Of The Monarch

The official account of the Spanish royal family @CasaReal posted picture of #JuanCarlos' abdication http://t.co/yeZbo663Dt—
  (@euronews) June 02, 2014

Yesterday, Spanish King Juan Carlos de Borbón abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Felipe. Fernando Betancor offers a detailed look at the abdication, its timing, and why it matters in a country where the monarchy is nowhere near as popular as it once was:

[A] generation of Spaniards grew old with Juan Carlos as the king that restored democracy; and another generation grew up with no direct experience of Franco’s rule, only of the monarch’s light touch in daily political life. The monarchy enjoyed widespread support across most segments of the population and especially among the survivors of the fascist regime. Even most supporters of Republic were perfectly willing to let Juan Carlos conclude his reign before pushing for change. That base of support has been eroded in recent years. …

The King has abdicated to save the monarchy and pass his inheritance intact to his son before his waning popularity gave out; but the action has sparked the most intense debate in the nation over the future of Spain. Demonstrations were organized immediately through social media in Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Bilbao and other major cities. Supporters of a Third Spanish Republic came out in large numbers last night, waving the republican flag and calling for a referendum on the future of the monarchy.

They will not get their wish before Felipe becomes King; but if Felipe is more popular today than his father, he also enjoys gets none of the credit for the transition to Spanish democracy. Popular discontent with the monarchy and calls for its abolition are not going to go away.

Jon Lee Anderson reviews the scandals that led to Juan Carlos’s fall from grace, beginning with an incident two years ago in which he broke his hip on a secret elephant-hunting expedition in Botswana. These scandals, he observes, have been accompanied by a change in the attitude of the Spanish press:

Spain’s media had been generally obsequious toward the royal family. When I published an article about Juan Carlos for this magazine, in 1998, I mentioned that the King was known to have had an affair; a Spanish journalist who had spoken to me for the story was so worried about his career that he called the chief of the royal household to apologize. Another Spanish newspaper editor told me that he and his colleagues “exercise self-censorship on the subject of the King.” Now the media began a kind of inquisition, investigating hitherto untouchable matters with relish. In addition to Elephantgate, there was a scandal involving Juan Carlos’s daughter Princess Cristina and her husband, Inaki Urdangari, a former sports hero accused of using a charitable foundation as a personal slush fund. (They have denied the charges.) In the past couple of years, hardly a week goes by without some new suggestion of royal nefariousness from the ensuing court case.

Spain’s political environment is also in the midst of what might be some very big changes:

Since 1977, Spain has been, for the most part, a two-party state. The Socialist Party has represented the center left, while since the late 1980s the People’s Party, and before that the Democratic Center have represented the center right. Last week, both parties were punished at the polls in European elections, taking less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time since the return to democracy.

It’s a mistake to read too much into European elections – populations tend to use them to register protest votes and then drift back to mainstream candidates for national elections – but the numbers here are particularly dramatic. It also seems significant that voters seem to have drifted more toward the anti-austerity leftist Podemos Party – an outgrowth of the indignados protests that pre-dated the rise of Occupy Wall Street in 2011, rather than the kind of right-wing anti-immigrant parties that made gains in many other European countries. The country’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 26 percent, 55 for youth. On top of that, Catalonia is experiencing a new wave of nationalism, with independence parties pushing for a referendum this fall.

James Badcock introduces us to the new king:

As a prince, Felipe has studiously avoided controversy. He won’t be able to for long, however. One of the biggest concerns the new king will face is the Catalan government’s plan to hold a referendum on independence from Spain in the fall. The prince has learned to speak Catalan and will no doubt develop the royal household’s recent and tentative experiment in online transparency regarding public funds. The question remains, however, whether in such a fragmented political environment such niceties will suffice to keep the monarchy safe. In a poll published earlier this year by the right-of-center daily El Mundo, barely 50 percent of the respondents said they were pro-monarchy, while a larger majority said Juan Carlos ought to abdicate.

And so he has. But the old king’s gesture was not enough to stop thousands of indignados filling squares in Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities on Monday evening to demand a referendum on the future of the monarchy in Spain. 

Bershidsky credits the old king for acknowledging that it was time to go:

The realities of modern monarchies are nothing like “A Game of Thrones”: There’s no point for kings and queens to hang on to power when people are tired of them. King Juan Carlos may have gotten attached to his title in his 39 years on the throne, but he is nothing if not a responsible statesman in a country he helped turn into a democracy. Unlike Franco, he can admit he is now frail, tired and no longer able to work his old magic. He doesn’t have to die on the job like the dictator he succeeded. There are plenty of dictators still left in the world whose countries would benefit if they followed Juan Carlos’s example.

Ishaan Tharoor takes stock of Europe’s monarchies, noting that Spain’s isn’t the only one whose relevance has been called into question:

Across the continent, a new generation of princes and princesses have been at pains to style themselves as frugal, ordinary citizens. But this betrays a weird tension: If the royals are just like anybody else, why do they need to exist? Ordinary citizens are not blessed with a divine right to kingship. Ordinary citizens do not exist on public expense. It’s the monarchs’ role to be living anachronisms. But can Europe afford that? …

The king’s abdication will probably not be Europe’s last. It’s rumored that after Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II eventually passes, her son Prince Charles may abdicate in favor of his son Prince William. One wonders how many more generations of costumed royals will have to ponder the same choices.