The King Emeritus returns to Abu Dhabi ignoring government pressure to explain

Father and son have talked about the "consequences in Spanish society" of different events in the last two years

MADRID, 23 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The King Emeritus has headed back to Abu Dhabi, where for now he has his permanent residence, after a first visit to Spain of just over four days in which there was a family reunion, including with Felipe VI, in Zarzuela and that has reopened the political debate around the monarchy.

Don Juan Carlos, who in all these days has been seen with clear mobility problems that have forced him to use a cane and rely on assistants and friends, already has a date for his next visit to Spain, between June 10 and 18 , back to Sanxenxo (Pontevedra), where he is confident that his boat, the 'Bribón', can revalidate the title in the 6mR Class Sailing World Championship.

The visit to Zarzuela has lasted for eleven hours and has allowed father and son to maintain "an extensive conversation time" that they did not want to quantify in which they have addressed "family issues as well as different events and their consequences in Spanish society" since the emeritus moved to the Gulf country.

This meeting was followed by a family lunch, which was attended by the King and Queen and their daughter, the Infanta Sofía, as well as Doña Sofía, who had not seen her husband in all this time, although she had to remain with the mask. because he tested positive on his return from his private trip to Miami this Sunday. The Infanta Elena and her two children have also attended, as well as the Infanta Margarina, sister of Don Juan Carlos, and her husband, Carlos Zurita.

Although the will expressed by the former monarch in the letter he sent to his son Felipe VI in March was that his frequent visits to Spain be framed in the private sphere, the first has not had the low profile that was expected.

Perhaps for this reason, in its statement, Zarzuela once again recalled that in said letter the former King informed his successor that he had made the decision "to organize his personal life and his place of residence in private spheres, both in his visits as if in the future I were to reside in Spain again, to continue enjoying the greatest possible privacy".

Since his arrival on Thursday afternoon at the Peinador airport in Vigo, his movements have been followed up to the minute by dozens of journalists stationed both at the gates of the residence that his friend Pedro Campos, the president of the Sanxenxo Yacht Club, told him has lent for his stay, as in the aforementioned sports center.

Don Juan Carlos was received by the mayor of Sanxenxo, Telmo Martín, and other personalities upon his arrival at the Club Náutico on Friday and this Sunday he presided over the awards ceremony for the Viajes Interrías Trophy, in which the 'Bribón' came in first position and that the emeritus himself was finally able to captain on the last day of the competition.

The King Emeritus has been sparing in words throughout his stay in Galician lands, limiting himself to brief comments about the competition, the weather or how happy he was to be back in Spain. He also assured that he wanted to meet his family again and said that he expected "many hugs" from the appointment.

But what the former monarch has not talked about, despite being asked about it, has been about his recent problems with the law, nor has he provided the "explanations" that the Government and Pedro Sánchez himself have been demanding for a long time. months. "Explanations of what?" He replied to the journalist who asked him about it this Sunday.

"I think he has lost the opportunity to give the response that Spaniards expect and democracy deserves," lamented this Monday the Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, for whom Don Juan Carlos should have taken advantage of this visit to "give an account" of the "actions" that were investigated by the Justice and that in his opinion are not compatible with the "transparency" and "exemplarity" that correspond to him.

In recent days, the message from the socialist wing of the Government has been the commitment to an explanation of the former monarch and the support for Felipe VI and the transparency in his reign that he has displayed since his arrival on the throne almost eight years ago. years.

However, from his coalition partners there have been criticisms of Don Juan Carlos. The third vice president, Yolanda Díaz, has been more restrained, defending that "the longer it takes to give explanations" the more damage is done to the monarchy and "the less understandable it is for citizens".

Much harder has been the Minister of Consumption and leader of IU, Alberto Garzón, who has said that the emeritus is an "accredited criminal" and has once again put the inviolability of the King on the table, an issue to which he has also referred the Minister of Human Rights and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra.

"The king emeritus should only return to Spain to be accountable to justice. That inviolability frees him from this humiliates our democracy," defended the 'purple' leader. Criticism against the one who was King for almost four decades has also intensified from the nationalist parties.

Against all of them, PP, Ciudadanos and Vox have emerged as the main defenders of Don Juan Carlos and the Crown. The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has stressed that the emeritus is a "citizen who does not have any pending case with the Justice" and has regretted that his figure and his visit are used "to question the head of State".

For his part, the deputy secretary general and national spokesman for Citizens, Edmundo Bal, has disfigured the Government that demands a "kind of humiliation" from Don Juan Carlos by asking him to give explanations and has recalled that the Prosecutor's Office has already put "full stop" in March by saying that "there are irregularities and that they are not liable to be criminally prosecuted".

Don Juan Carlos returns to Abu Dhabi, where since August 2020 he has lived as a guest of the former crown prince and now ruler of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahayan, but he already has a date on his agenda for his return to Spain, in less of a month although the day has not yet been fixed.

This first visit has served the emeritus to test the spirits regarding his person and surely also to take notes for future ones, although if the environment of the next one is again the Club Náutico de Sanxenxo, everything indicates that it will again attract all lights again.

The King's father claimed in the letter he sent to Don Felipe in March that he considered his return "timely" now that the Prosecutor's Office had closed the three open investigations into his person and assured that "both during my visits and if in the future I returned to reside in Spain, it is my purpose to organize my personal life and my place of residence in areas of a private nature to continue enjoying the greatest possible privacy".