The decision of Juan Carlos I

Friday, July 31. San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja) is the scene of the presidents' conference, the first in person after the 14 weekly telematic appointments held under confinement. Pedro Sánchez wants to give an image of cohesion and unity in the face of the galloping economic crisis and the proliferation of outbreaks that threaten to unleash a second wave of the pandemic. Even the lehendakari Íñigo Urkullu appears by surprise, leaving in evidence the Catalan president Quim Torra, the only absent

The King, who concluded his tour of the 17 autonomous communities the day before in Asturias, came to inaugurate it. The program is adjusted to the millimeter but, at the last minute, everything has to be changed because the head of state wants to meet alone with the head of government. Nobody knows what they are talking about.

Less than 48 years later, Juan Carlos I leaves the Palacio de La Zarzuela, which had been his home for the last 58 years, and on Monday he leaves Spain with an unknown destination and for an indefinite time. The decision had been taken at the end of July, in the midst of an informative downpour about the fortune of the former head of state in tax havens, but several ropes remained to be tied. They were tied up by Felipe VI and the head of the Government in their Riojan meeting.

One of the last points to be closed was the exact terms of the statement with which the House of the King would announce the departure of the King Emeritus, on the afternoon of August 3. Each word of the text was carefully measured, especially seven of them: "Moving, at the moment, out of Spain."

Moving, not exiling, or eloping. Not even traveling, leaving, leaving or abandoning. Moving is changing from one place to another. But for civil servants and the military (and Juan Carlos de Borbón's profession is that of a military man), moving is a change of destination, often to another location. The transfer can be voluntary or forced.

As EL PAÍS advanced, the final solution was agreed in a face-to-face meeting between father and son. The interview was held in the office of Felipe VI and the head of the Casa del Rey, Jaime Alfonsín, was also present, as the journalist Carlos Herrera later revealed. In the three-way talks that took place during the month of July, the King was the interlocutor of his father and President Sánchez, while Alfonsín dispatched with the first vice president, Carmen Calvo, and the president's chief of staff, Iván Redondo .

Sánchez's statements, describing the news about the opaque funds of Juan Carlos I abroad as "disturbing and disturbing", and the insistence of several ministers urging Felipe VI to distance himself from the emeritus king put all the spotlight on La Zarzuela. But it was not alleged pressure from the Government that persuaded the Head of State of the need to take measures, but rather surveys, held by the Royal Household, which showed that the prestige of the Monarchy was in free fall and its discredit was galloping, especially among Spaniards under 45 years of age.

In his hearings with the King, Sánchez frankly expressed his alarm at the drift of events and the need to safeguard the institution at all costs, building a firewall to protect it from scandal, but he did not point the way to follow. "The Government pointed out the problem, but the decision had to be made by the King," say government sources. In other words, Felipe VI would have all the support of the president whatever his decision, but the responsibility for it. and its consequences would be his alone. What was at stake was the credibility of the crown.

In those weeks there was a transfer of reports and legal opinions between La Moncloa and the Royal House. All possible alternatives were analyzed: from a resignation by Juan Carlos I to immunity while he was head of state, legally unfeasible; even a fiscal regularization, materially impossible if you wanted to compensate everything that in its day stopped paying tax to the Treasury. And not only the last five years legally enforceable.

The matter was handled with absolute secrecy, so much so that Carmen Calvo was the only member of the Government who was aware, in addition to the president himself. Not only the ministers of United We Can, who later complained of having been ignored, learned of the outcome from the press. Also most of the PSOE were in albis.

The refusal of Juan Carlos I to voluntarily renounce the honorary title of king, which was granted to him for life in June 2014, a few days before his abdication, ruled out the simplest option, since it was enough to modify a royal decree. But Felipe VI did not want to strip him of the title against his will, as he did with the Duchy of Palma from his sister Cristina, causing a sentimental tear. Nor did he want to cut back on the Royal Family, repeating the operation he carried out after his coronation, when he excluded his sisters and brothers-in-law and reduced it to his parents and daughters, as this would have required unjustly punishing his mother, Queen Sofia.

The remaining option was to put physical distance between the crown and its previous owner, the departure of Juan Carlos I from La Zarzuela. At first, the emeritus king did not accept this solution either. As in the aftermath of the Botswana accident, when he resisted publicly asking for forgiveness, or in the months leading up to his abdication, doubts assailed him. Secluded in the Palacio de La Zarzuela since the beginning of the confinement, his only contact with the outside was his talks with friends, some of whom encouraged him to resist on the grounds that he was being unfairly treated.

Finally, he finally gave in. The proof that it was difficult for him to take this step is that, in the official statement, Felipe VI expressed to his father his “heartfelt respect and gratitude for his decision”, aware of the personal sacrifice that it implied.

But in the tug-of-war there was no minor change: Juan Carlos I would not only leave the palace, as advised by the Government, but would go abroad. Pedro Sánchez saw inconveniences to this exit and preferred that he stay in Spain, but he ended up giving him his full support because it was the agreement that father and son had reached and that was their commitment: to support him in any case, according to the sources consulted.

The departure of Juan Carlos I opened new unknowns: where was he going to live and with what means. Those who contributed their opinion, advised against London, because there lives his ex-lover Corinna Larsen, and also the Persian Gulf, because it meant "returning to the place of the crime", alluding to the donation of 100 million dollars from the Saudi Royal House that investigates the Swiss prosecutor. But in the end, those who have treated him closely emphasize, no one is going to tell the emeritus king where he should go: "It is one thing for him to agree to leave Spain, because he has been told, and another to limit his freedom of movement."

While setting his permanent residence abroad, if he does so, the emeritus king has gone to see his friends, first in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) and then, according to different information, in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates.

With 82 years and 17 surgeries --- including an open heart now a year ago --- his greatest concern is the risk posed by covid-19, a disease of which a vulnerable population is known.

The Government avoids reporting the whereabouts of Juan Carlos I and passes the ball to the Royal Household, which in turn gets rid of it claiming that it is a private trip for which it does not have to account. But the former head of state is not an ordinary citizen: he holds the title of king on an honorary basis, continues to be part of the Royal Family, has a police escort, is certified to the Supreme Court and has not renounced his dynastic rights over the Crown.

The collateral effect has been to formalize what was an open secret for years: the separation of Juan Carlos I and Doña Sofía. The queen emerita traveled to Mallorca, where she has allowed herself to be photographed shopping, while her husband starred in an almost clandestine exit from Spain fleeing the cameras. The word that best defines the departure of the emeritus king, according to one of his friends, is estrangement, a mixture of voluntary exile, incredulity and longing.