Everything was uncovered more than 7,500 kilometers from Spain, when a night stumble brought to light the secret hobbies of John Charles I. The aura that he had enjoyed as King for decades was dismantled to pieces until precipitating his abdication. But, pulling on that thread, he also unraveled a skein of opaque business and less honorable actions that questioned his exemplary character and led to his historical ‘exile’ another 7,500 kilometers from Spain. Despite the fact that judicially they have ended in nothing, the investigations in Spain and Switzerland have proven a decade of irregularities by the emeritus king.
Ten years after the accident in Botswana, on April 13, 2012, public surveys on the Monarchy in general and on Juan Carlos I in particular have been conspicuous by their absence since 2015. Political Barometer of Spain of the Gabinet d’Estudis Socials i Opinió Pública (GESOP) for the Prensa Ibérica group now reflects that two out of three Spaniards disapprove of the decision of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to archive all investigations into the former head of state. 66.9% reject a judicial shelving which, on the contrary, is shared by 23.9% of citizens. The field work of the survey was carried out from 1,000 interviews from April 4 to 6.
Specifically, the alleged commissions for the AVE to Mecca were archived as no crime could be proven, due to the inviolability of Juan Carlos I while he was head of state and the prescription of possible crimes. These last two arguments also justified the closure of the investigations into the societies of the king emeritus in Jersey. Instead, his two tax adjustmentsin which he paid a total of €5,074,295.68served to settle the alleged crimes for the use of opaque cards and travel payments by the Zagatka Foundation.
The social discrepancy with the prosecution on this issue admits only two nuances in the electorate as a whole. First of all, the PP voters they are the only ones who overwhelmingly (55.8%) support filing the cases, although one in three (34.9%) does not agree with the judicial outcome either. The second nuance are vox votersamong which opinions are very divided: 44% deplore the ‘acquittal’ of the king emeritus and 42% support it.
in the caldron of citizens, the rejection is majority (56.2%), but the endorsement of the decision of the prosecution reaches 32.9%. Those who have no doubts are the PSOE voters: 78.2% disagree with the Public Ministry and only 12.9% agree. In the rest of the left-wing parties and in the independentist formations, the rejection of the judicial shelving far exceeds 90%.
Beyond the ballot they chose in the last general election, the end point to the investigations only pleases voters who define themselves in right (47% in favor of filing and 41.6% against) or center right (52.4% in favor of filing and 40.5% against), while the voters of hub (29.3% in favor of the file and 58% against), center left (11.9% in favor of the file and 81.9% against) and left (8.5% in favor of the file and 86.3% against).
Where the king emeritus does not cause divisions is on the regional map. The rejection of the judicial shelving is the majority in all the communities, although the percentages range between 52.3% of the Castilles and 85.2% of Basque Countrygoing through 63.8% of Madrid and 79.6% of Catalonia. Accordingly, support for the closure of the investigations ranges between 10.8% of Basques and 41.2% of Castilians, passing through 13.5% of Catalans and 23.5% of Madrid.
Related news
By ages, criticism of the prosecution is much stronger among the youngest, with percentages that exceed 75% in those surveyed between 18 and 44 years of age. Although in no age group is the judicial file shared, the discrepancy drops to 58.8% between older than 60 years, a sector in which three out of 10 polled endorse the shelving. On the contrary, there are hardly any differences between social groups when the results are broken down by municipality dimensionfor educational level and by sex. In all cases, rejection of the prosecution’s decision is above 60%.
the end of the via judicial crucis has not accelerated, for the moment, the return to Spain of who was its king from November 22, 1975 to June 18, 2014. The inviolability, prescription of crimes and fiscal regularizations have saved Juan Carlos I from the indictment three years after judges and prosecutors began to unravel its secrets and 10 years after everything was exposed in botswana. With the judicial outcome, the focus is once again on the King’s House and its eternal promise to increase the transparency of an institution that has been chaining earthquakes for three decades.
Data sheet
–Responsible company: GESOP.
–investigation technique: Telephone interviews.
–scope of study: Spain.
–Population: Adults with the right to vote.
–Sample: 1,000 interviews.
–Sampling type: Proportional by autonomous communities and size of municipality. -Selection of the person to be interviewed according to crossed quotas of sex and age.
–Error range: +/- 3.16% for a confidence level of 95% and p=q=0.5.
–Field work: From April 4 to 6, 2022.