They expressed their anger. Around 300 people demonstrated in Madrid on Sunday against ex-king Juan Carlos I, whose visit to Spain after nearly two years in exile in the United Arab Emirates following accusations of embezzlement has drawn widespread criticism.
The demonstrators gathered in a square in front of the royal theater, very close to the royal palace, to criticize the former head of the Spanish state (1975-2014). They held up signs that read “Justice” or “Le Bourbon, en prison”.
He is due to visit his son on Monday
The 84-year-old ex-king arrived on Thursday to watch a regatta in Sanxenzo, Spain’s northwest Galicia, until Sunday. The one who had not returned to Spain since August 2020, must go to Madrid on Monday to see in particular his son, King Felipe VI, and his wife Sofia, before leaving the same day for Abu Dhabi “where he established his permanent and stable residence,” the palace said Wednesday evening.
This brief visit by Juan Carlos comes after the Spanish courts closed the corruption and money laundering investigations against him in March. But the revelations about the opaque origin of his fortune have forever tarnished, in much of Spanish public opinion, the image of this figure adored for decades for having led Spain’s democratic transition after his death. of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
The government of socialist Pedro Sánchez – which, according to the media, has opposed allowing him to stay at the Royal Palace of Zarzuela, the official residence of Felipe VI – is still awaiting “explanations” from him for his conduct.
On the port of Sanxenxo, where Juan Carlos boarded this weekend the “Bribon”, the sailboat with which he had been world champion, dozens of curious people cheered and welcomed him with cries of “Long live the king, Long live Spain “.