The former King, Juan Carlos I, has decided to put his return to Spain, expected to take place in May or June, on hold, following the indignation of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who has demanded that he provides explanations following the sudden announcement.
The former monarch has decided to immediately freeze his plan to return to Spain, which he had made known through a statement in which he told his son, King Felipe VI , of his desire to return “frequently” to the country in the next few months.
Sánchez’s discomfort lies in the statement that the King made public last Monday. In the two-page document, King Juan Carlos informed his son of his decision to stay and live, long-term, in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. However, he told of his desire to be able to return to Spain on a regular basis to visit his family and friends.
The day after the publication of this letter, which was made public just a week after the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office shelved the three investigations that were taking place around the monarch, the Prime Minister told journalists that King Don Juan Carlos had still to provide “explanations” about the information surrounding his opaque financial operations. And this angry reaction from Sánchez seems to have been decisive for Juan Carlos I to cancel his return to Spain for the time being.
“I still believe that he has to give an explanation because the information that we have is not acceptable,” Sánchez said without hiding his discomfort at a decision that puts the stability of the Crown at risk. The Prime Minister is understood to have made his remarks during an informal conversation with several journalists on the plane in which he travelled to Latvia to visit the Spanish troops taking part in a NATO deterrence mission against Russia.
