I came here alarmed just half way through reading Zoe Williams’ weekly summary of this post, which includes a mention to this answer. I haven’t read anything else.
I really encourage you to get to know more about Juan Carlos de Borbón (JC). You seem to have a very skewed view of his morals and his alignment with democracy.
He abdicated the throne in benefit of his son, who is the current king of Spain. And he did it because it was not feasible for the “royal dynasty”[?? “casa real” in Spanish] to keep covering his legal problems any longer, not because he wanted. So it was basically the family (and surrounding establishment) that kicked him out to save the monarchy, not that he abdicated to end it. After abdicating moved to the Emirates and could not return to visit Spain for a long while, while “they” sorted out his issues with the law.
In addition, in 23 February 1981 (23F) there was an attempt of coup in Spain. Officially, JC was against it. This rejection, however, has been very, very questioned. One cannot know for sure, in part because the Spanish governments keep on prolonging the time period that state secrets stay secret, but it seems very plausible that JC, at least, was not against it (it is said to be proven that he knew about it). It is less clear if he just tolerated it, supported it, or if he pushed for it. Relatedly, it took him very long (I think 18h) to address the Spanish citizens in TV supporting the “constitutional order”.
HBO Spain has coincidentally premiered a documentary in form of a short series called Save the King (Salvar el Rey), which is centered in the “silence pact” for covering his constant bad practices, from corruption to affairs. Disappointingly, it seems that even this documentary does almost not say anything about his 2 biggest dark moments: the mentioned 23F, and the death of his younger brother due to a gun shot while they both were together in a room when he was 18. [I actually don’t believe that JC killed his brother, at least in purpose]
I am sorry, but I think that you will have to find someone else’s story to get moral inspiration :-)
Thank you for all these details! It’s true, I was only aware of the general outlines of Spain’s transition to democracy. I guess it is more correct to say that I am inspired by the /abstract fantasy/ of inheriting the reins to an oppressive government and then turning everything around in a virtuous and altruistic way, rather than by the messy real-world character flaws that feature in the actual histories of Deng Xaoping, Juan Carlos, Mikhail Gorbechav, etc.
I came here alarmed just half way through reading Zoe Williams’ weekly summary of this post, which includes a mention to this answer. I haven’t read anything else.
I really encourage you to get to know more about Juan Carlos de Borbón (JC). You seem to have a very skewed view of his morals and his alignment with democracy.
He abdicated the throne in benefit of his son, who is the current king of Spain. And he did it because it was not feasible for the “royal dynasty”[?? “casa real” in Spanish] to keep covering his legal problems any longer, not because he wanted. So it was basically the family (and surrounding establishment) that kicked him out to save the monarchy, not that he abdicated to end it. After abdicating moved to the Emirates and could not return to visit Spain for a long while, while “they” sorted out his issues with the law.
In addition, in 23 February 1981 (23F) there was an attempt of coup in Spain. Officially, JC was against it. This rejection, however, has been very, very questioned. One cannot know for sure, in part because the Spanish governments keep on prolonging the time period that state secrets stay secret, but it seems very plausible that JC, at least, was not against it (it is said to be proven that he knew about it). It is less clear if he just tolerated it, supported it, or if he pushed for it. Relatedly, it took him very long (I think 18h) to address the Spanish citizens in TV supporting the “constitutional order”.
HBO Spain has coincidentally premiered a documentary in form of a short series called Save the King (Salvar el Rey), which is centered in the “silence pact” for covering his constant bad practices, from corruption to affairs. Disappointingly, it seems that even this documentary does almost not say anything about his 2 biggest dark moments: the mentioned 23F, and the death of his younger brother due to a gun shot while they both were together in a room when he was 18. [I actually don’t believe that JC killed his brother, at least in purpose]
I am sorry, but I think that you will have to find someone else’s story to get moral inspiration :-)
Thank you for all these details! It’s true, I was only aware of the general outlines of Spain’s transition to democracy. I guess it is more correct to say that I am inspired by the /abstract fantasy/ of inheriting the reins to an oppressive government and then turning everything around in a virtuous and altruistic way, rather than by the messy real-world character flaws that feature in the actual histories of Deng Xaoping, Juan Carlos, Mikhail Gorbechav, etc.