EXILED Emeritus King, Juan Carlos, has said that democracy is the ‘legacy he left to Spain’ in his memoir to be published in France next week.
The book’s appearance will coincide with next month’s 50th anniversary of the death of dictator General Francisco Franco, but will not be published in Spain until early December.
The memoir also sees Juan Carlos expressing his desire for a good relationship with his son, King Felipe, and to see out his remaining years in Spain.
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JUAN CARLOS AT A REGATTA
In the book he says: “I hope above all, during my life, to have a quiet retirement, to renew a harmonious relationship with my son and, above all, to return to Spain, to my home.”
Juan Carlos gave two interviews plugging the memoir to French media, including one to the Le Figaro newspaper, where he talked about his part in restoring democracy after Franco’s death- in November 1975.
He said “After forty years of dictatorship, I gave Spaniards a democracy that is still alive; it is my inheritance.”
The Emeritus King said that when he came to power, ‘I had the compass, but not the plan’ to take the country from the Franco dictatorship to the current regime.
When the dictator died, Juan Carlos at the age of 37 technically became an ‘absolute’ monarch.
“For two years, I had all the powers. The power to pardon or endorse the death penalty. I didn’t have to, thank God, because at that point, if I had said no, the generals would have overthrown me,” he commented.
“I hesitated to write this book, but little by little I realised that the children and grandchildren of my friends had no idea about Franco or the democratic transition that followed. And yet, the seventies have not been so long in the past!”
Asked by Le Point magazine if he had any advice to give to his grand-daughter Leonor and heir to the throne, he said: “I hope that hat she has self-confidence, that she fulfils her duty with sympathy and kindness, and that she is the guarantor of respect for the Spanish Constitution.”
In a comment about the current world situation, he concluded: “It is easier to destroy a democracy than to build it.”
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