Sumar demands that the Government suppress the titles and distinctions of Juan Carlos I
The minority partner of the Government, Sumar, has demanded today that the Executive suppress the distinctions and titles that the emeritus king Juan Carlos I currently enjoys, and that it also urges the communities and city councils to remove his name from institutions, centers and public infrastructures. This has been requested by the plurinational group through a non-law proposal registered for debate in the Plenary of the Lower House and signed by representatives of Sumar, Más Madrid, Comunes and IU, days after the 50th anniversary of Don Juan Carlos as monarch.
The initiative of the minority partner of the Executive coincides with the publication of the emeritus’ memoirs, which different members of the space have criticized, and after Sumar’s ‘presentation’ at the commemorative event on the monarchy that took place recently in Congress. Sumar emphasizes that this act sought to highlight the contribution of the parliamentary Monarchy to the consolidation of democracy, but it took place with the notable absence of Juan Carlos, the “historical protagonist” of said anniversary, who was not invited to the ceremony.
This “exclusion” of the emeritus reveals, in his opinion, the “clear institutional distance that the State itself and the public powers have established with respect to his figure”, which is added to other measures such as the withdrawal in 2020 of his budget allocation from the Royal Family and the cessation of his entire institutional agenda after various “episodes of fiscal, financial and ethical controversies accumulated in recent years.”
Among them, he cites his decision to establish residence in Abu Dhabi, “voluntary tax regularizations” for undeclared income and investigations related to funds abroad and “opaque” structures. Sumar also argues that the public impact of Juan Carlos I’s behavior “has eroded the exemplarity that is presumed of those who embody the Head of State, also affecting the image and credibility of constitutional institutions.” (EP)
