Skybird
02-09-12, 07:08 AM
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,814156,00.html
A newly declassified document from the German Foreign Ministry archive contains revealing new information about the failed 1981 coup in Spain. According to the report, Spanish King Juan Carlos apparently showed sympathy for the plotters in a private conversation with the German ambassador.
In a normal year, Feb. 23 is a good day for Spanish King Juan Carlos. On that day, Spaniards commemorate the putsch attempt of 1981 and celebrate their monarch as the savior of the then-young democracy. At the time, dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, who had ruled the country since 1939, had only been dead for five years and three months. His most ardent followers among the military brass were set on re-imposing military rule in the country. But Juan Carlos stood in their way.
But 2012 is no normal year. At the moment, the king's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín is being tried before a court in Palma de Mallorca. The husband of the king's youngest daughter Cristina, he stands accused of having embezzled several million euros, together with others, as head of a foundation. What's more, a survey conducted by a social research institute last October indicated that, for the first time, there has been a considerable decline in people's faith in the monarchy. In any case, it shows that 47 million Spaniards have primarily supported Juan Carlos himself rather than the monarchy as an institution.
And now, at the worst possible moment, a document has emerged that casts a shadow on the sparkling image of this supposedly flawless democrat in the Spanish royal family.
(...)
Lahn then reported back to Bonn, the West German capital, that the king "showed no indication of either antipathy or outrage vis-à-vis the actors (in the plot) but, rather, displayed much more understanding, if not sympathy." He wrote that Juan Carlos had stated, "almost apologetically," that the insurrectionists "only wanted what we are all striving for, namely, the re-establishment of discipline, order, security and calm."
The king reportedly told Lahn that it was the democratically elected former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, rather than the coup leaders, who bore particular responsibility, because he had failed to establish "a relationship with the military" and refused to take their "justified wishes" seriously.
Suárez, said the king, had "despised" the military. He, Juan Carlos, had often advised Suárez "to respond to the military's ideas," but without success. Eventually, the king said, the military had decided to "act on its own initiative."
The king then allegedly added that he now wanted to influence the government and the military courts, so that "not too much" would happen to the coup leaders, "who obviously only wanted the best" for the country.
Julián Casanova, a professor at the University of Zaragoza who is one of the leading authorities on contemporary Spanish history, believes that Lahn's teletype, which bears the message number 524, is "extraordinarily important." That's because it is the only written proof to date that Juan Carlos might have secretly been nostalgic for the kind of military rule that Franco had taught him to appreciate. The dictator had brought Juan Carlos, who was just 10 years old at the time, back to Spain and later appointed him as his successor.
I don't know how stabile the public loyalty to the monarchy is in Spain. The article says it is less loyalty to the institution but to the single man, the king. I wonder what effect such revelations then will have, in a climate of urgent economic problems that press people in ordinary life and may occupy them more than any romantic emotions over Spanish Royalty that currently is haunted by negative headlines anyway.
A newly declassified document from the German Foreign Ministry archive contains revealing new information about the failed 1981 coup in Spain. According to the report, Spanish King Juan Carlos apparently showed sympathy for the plotters in a private conversation with the German ambassador.
In a normal year, Feb. 23 is a good day for Spanish King Juan Carlos. On that day, Spaniards commemorate the putsch attempt of 1981 and celebrate their monarch as the savior of the then-young democracy. At the time, dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, who had ruled the country since 1939, had only been dead for five years and three months. His most ardent followers among the military brass were set on re-imposing military rule in the country. But Juan Carlos stood in their way.
But 2012 is no normal year. At the moment, the king's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín is being tried before a court in Palma de Mallorca. The husband of the king's youngest daughter Cristina, he stands accused of having embezzled several million euros, together with others, as head of a foundation. What's more, a survey conducted by a social research institute last October indicated that, for the first time, there has been a considerable decline in people's faith in the monarchy. In any case, it shows that 47 million Spaniards have primarily supported Juan Carlos himself rather than the monarchy as an institution.
And now, at the worst possible moment, a document has emerged that casts a shadow on the sparkling image of this supposedly flawless democrat in the Spanish royal family.
(...)
Lahn then reported back to Bonn, the West German capital, that the king "showed no indication of either antipathy or outrage vis-à-vis the actors (in the plot) but, rather, displayed much more understanding, if not sympathy." He wrote that Juan Carlos had stated, "almost apologetically," that the insurrectionists "only wanted what we are all striving for, namely, the re-establishment of discipline, order, security and calm."
The king reportedly told Lahn that it was the democratically elected former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, rather than the coup leaders, who bore particular responsibility, because he had failed to establish "a relationship with the military" and refused to take their "justified wishes" seriously.
Suárez, said the king, had "despised" the military. He, Juan Carlos, had often advised Suárez "to respond to the military's ideas," but without success. Eventually, the king said, the military had decided to "act on its own initiative."
The king then allegedly added that he now wanted to influence the government and the military courts, so that "not too much" would happen to the coup leaders, "who obviously only wanted the best" for the country.
Julián Casanova, a professor at the University of Zaragoza who is one of the leading authorities on contemporary Spanish history, believes that Lahn's teletype, which bears the message number 524, is "extraordinarily important." That's because it is the only written proof to date that Juan Carlos might have secretly been nostalgic for the kind of military rule that Franco had taught him to appreciate. The dictator had brought Juan Carlos, who was just 10 years old at the time, back to Spain and later appointed him as his successor.
I don't know how stabile the public loyalty to the monarchy is in Spain. The article says it is less loyalty to the institution but to the single man, the king. I wonder what effect such revelations then will have, in a climate of urgent economic problems that press people in ordinary life and may occupy them more than any romantic emotions over Spanish Royalty that currently is haunted by negative headlines anyway.