Juan Carlos I, in Sanxenxo in July 2019.Iago Lòpez (GTRES)
Juan Carlos I returns to Spain.
It is expected that this Thursday afternoon he will land at the Peinador airport, in Vigo (Pontevedra), for a five-day stay in his country after 654 days as an expatriate in Abu Dhabi.
The plane in which the former head of state returns is a Gulfstream G450, a jet registered in Aruba (Netherlands Antilles) owned by the Angolan company Bestfly.
It has not transpired who paid for the flight, which left Abu Dhabi at 10:30 a.m. (Spanish peninsular time) and was scheduled to land at 6:23 p.m., although its arrival will be delayed.
Two hours before, the eldest of his daughters, the Infanta Elena, had been waiting for the king emeritus at the Galician aerodrome.
During his stay in Galicia, until next Monday, Juan Carlos I will stay at the house of Pedro Campos, president of the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) and a close friend of the king emeritus.
In a conversation with journalists prior to the arrival of the former head of state, Campos assured that he is "very excited" and "very excited" to return to Spain after almost two years expatriated in the Persian Gulf.
“He is excited, very excited to return to Spain.
That is the main message that he has transferred to me.
Then he has told me that he wants to see the crew [of the
Rascal
, the sailboat with which he won the 3mR class World Cup in 2019 in Finland].
According to the close friend of Juan Carlos I, who last spoke with him on Wednesday, he knows "perfectly" that his return to Spain has generated "a lot of expectation."
Juan Carlos I is expected to receive a reception this Friday morning at the Yacht Club.
"Tonight [for Thursday] we will give you more specific information so that you know that tomorrow you will find so many people," added Campos.
Although he has confessed to feeling "overwhelmed" by the expectation created by the arrival of the emeritus king, he has described it as "normal", because Juan Carlos I has "more good things than bad".
A civil guard stationed at the gates of the house of Pedro Campos, president of the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo (Pontevedra), where the king emeritus is expected to stay. lavandeira Lavandeira Jr (EFE)
The president of the Yacht Club has not revealed whether the king emeritus will participate as skipper in the last preparatory test for the 6mR class world championship, scheduled for June 10 to 19, or will limit himself to attending as a spectator.
"He has not sailed for three years, although he says that he is in very good physical shape", Campos has dropped.
Instead, he has been convinced that the king emeritus will return to Sanxenxo between June 10 and 19, to defend the world title of sailboats in his class.
Juan Carlos I will travel to Madrid on Monday, where he will meet at the Zarzuela with Felipe VI and Queen Sofía at a lunch in which the presence of his daughter-in-law, Queen Letizia, and his granddaughter, Infanta Sofía, are not confirmed.
Next, he will travel back to Abu Dhabi, without spending the night at the Palacio de La Zarzuela.
The Government had opposed Juan Carlos I spending the night in the palace, considering that it is not only the residence of the Royal Family but also the headquarters of the Head of State.
The Casa del Rey issued a statement early on Wednesday night in which it reported that Don Juan Carlos had asked him to make public his decision to travel to Spain from tomorrow [Thursday] the 19th until next Monday. may 23".
The statement added that Juan Carlos I plans to “remain during those dates in the Pontevedra town of Sanxenxo, and on Monday the 23rd travel to Madrid to be with Felipe VI, Queen Sofía and other members of his family [which he does not specify, although it can only refer to her daughter-in-law, Queen Letizia, and her granddaughter, the Infanta Sofía, since the Princess of Asturias is interned at a school in Wales (United Kingdom)] in the Palacio de La Zarzuela, ”adds the statement.
"That same day," he points out, "the king emeritus will travel back to Abu Dhabi, where he has established his permanent and stable residence."
View of the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo, yesterday.Lavandeira jr (EFE)
La Zarzuela explained that Queen Sofía "has traveled to Miami (United States) to be present, privately, at the activities organized in that city by the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first circumnavigation, coinciding with the arrival in Miami of the training ship of the Navy Juan Sebastián de Elcano”.
The wife of the former head of state will not return to Spain until Sunday the 22nd, so it will be Monday the 23rd when she meets with Don Juan Carlos.
This justifies the king emeritus going to the Sanxenxo regattas before visiting the Royal Family in La Zarzuela.
The return of Don Juan Carlos has not been free of controversy.
The organization of the trip has been made difficult by the refusal of the Government, assumed by the House of the King, for Juan Carlos I to spend the night in La Zarzuela, alleging that it is not the private residence of the Royal Family, but the headquarters of the Headquarters of the Condition;
and emphasizing that, although the king emeritus is exonerated from any criminal responsibility – due to the immunity he enjoyed as a previous head of the Crown, due to the prescription of the crimes or due to the fiscal regularization that he presented – he has not given any explanation nor has he requested apologize to Spanish society for his behaviour.
For this reason, once he has participated in the regattas and had a lunch in what was his home for 60 years, he will return to Abu Dhabi, where he has established his permanent residence since, on August 3, 2020, he left Spain. when several cases were still open in the Spanish and Swiss prosecutors for his alleged fortune abroad (now those cases have already been archived).
The idea, in any case, is that the first visit of the emeritus king serves to normalize his presence in Spain and give way to regular visits until his definitive return occurs.