Two years without Juan Carlos and a question to be solved

August 3, 2020 was the day the emeritus king had chosen to temporarily put his “decision to move abroad” into effect; a date that will no doubt be recorded in the annals of our history. A surprising announcement for which the Royal House was responsible two years ago, via a letter in which Don Juan Carlos addressed his son Felipe VI personally. In her communicated his imminent decision to leave our country to move to the United Arab Emirates indefinitely “due to the public repercussions of certain past events in my private life” with the aim of “providing the best service to the Spaniards and their institutions”.

Two years have passed and the summer of 2022 is not easy for him. While his son sails the waters of the Mediterranean aboard the Aifos 500, in Mallorca, his father faces a summer in the complete solitude of Abu Dhabi. With the only company of his companions, Juan Carlos I faces what may be the hottest of his life: “The temperature is 53 degrees with a humidity of 98 percent, so you can’t even go to the garden, says a source close to LOC. But let’s sum it up.

With his sudden departure from Spain Juan Carlos I wanted to distance themselves from the tax problems that began to grow around him. And it is that just two months before his transfer the three scandals for which he was investigated by the Public Prosecution Service: the alleged commissions for the work of the bird to Mecca, the payments of Mexican millionaire Allen Sanginés-Krause and the confidence of the island of Jersey that led him to introduce some commissions worth more than 10 million euros. Motivating the fact that this trio of controversies saw the public light a decision that he took according to his own words “with deep feeling, but with great serenity”. Although he initially refused to leave the country he had worked so hard to rule, he would soon realize it was a decision he had to make in the best interests of the institution. “I have been King of Spain for 40 years and during all these years I have always wanted the best for Spain and for the Crown. With my loyalty forever. With the love and affection of always, your father “was written in that statement.

From that moment on the life of don Juan Carlos began to change and not just because I have to live abroad. Although hardly any details are known about his daily life on the other side of the world, it is known that the emeritus initially settled in the suite of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, located on the top floor of the Emirates Palace Hotel. Although this was no more than a temporary residence. A few days after landing in the United Arab Emirates, Juan Carlos I and his personal entourage were transferred to a modern private residence near the presidential palace, near the hotel where he had been staying. This second home was ceded by the Abu Dhabi head of state, who would later offer the emeritus another one of his properties in the desert.

Despite the difficult circumstances and his increasingly accentuated mobility issues, the emeritus king has tried to be as positive as possible during the nearly two years he had to be away from his family; Y has always held the hope of being able to return one day? to our country. Last March, the Supreme Court’s prosecution decided to finalize the investigation into Juan Carlos I’s hidden fortune, just four years after Anti-Corruption began its first investigations. Although some erratic behavior on the part of Felipe VI’s father was proven, it cannot be prosecuted because the monarch enjoyed inviolability until his abdication in June 2014. The tax regularizations carried out by the monarch in recent months and the fact that some of the charges brought against him they would have prescribedThe prosecution made the decision to end a number of proceedings that led Don Juan Carlos to seek refuge in the United Arab Emirates.

The submission of this procedure motivated his return to Spain at the end of May of the same year, a decision also responsible for communicating with his son through another letter: “It seems appropriate to consider my return to Spain, although not immediately”, the second letter addressed to Felipe VI , dated March 5th. Two days later, the Royal House was responsible for distributing a text in which they also contained a series of suggestions from the Zarzuela, from which they qualify their temporary return as a “constructive and responsible” decision by the emeritus. Despite this, they continue to “carefully” and “discreetly” see that the emeritus king continues to maintain his abode in the Emirates.

A vision that also seems to be shared by Juan Carlos himself, who wanted to take the opportunity to make it clear that you plan to visit our country much more often: “At the moment I prefer, for reasons that belong to my private sphere and that concern me alone, to continue living permanently and stably in Abu Dhabi, where I have found peace of mind, especially for this period of my life. Although “Of course I will regularly return to Spain, which I always carry in my heart, to visit family and friends,” he explained in this document. Felipe VI would not take long to respond to Don Juan’s letter. Carlos stating that he “respected” and “understood” his father’s decision.

On May 19, Don Juan Carlos landed at Vigo . airport to share a few days of vacation with some friends in Sanxenxo, where he could again enjoy the traditional InterRias Trophy. After an intense weekend in Galicia, the emeritus king traveled to Madrid to meet in the Palacio de la Zarzuela with his son Felipe, with whom he had a private meeting which lasted several hours. In it King Felipe VI he conveyed his discomfort to his father because of the way he had decided to return to Spain after the media scandal that arose after his departure: with a crowd bathing in Sanxenxo and without going through Zarzuela to see his family before. A ‘scorching’ that made the emeritus reconsiderwho took the decision to cancel his commitments to the Galician regattas, to which he would return on the weekend of 10 June.

Pedro Campos, close friend and host of don Juan Carlos during his stay in Sanxenxo, explained the reasons that prompted the emeritus to make these last minute changes to his itinerary; arguing that it was due to a series of reasons of a “private nature”. The one who was king for 40 years then went back to Abu Dhabi, where he still has his official residence. Today it is unknown if there is an official date for his final return to Spain, or if it will just happen at some point.