King Juan Carlos has decided to cancel the trip to Spain after the Government forbade him to take up accommodation in the Palacio de la Zarzuela. The cancellation of this trip occurs after Moncloa and Zarzuela reached an agreement on the date, scheduled for the last weekend in April. Now the trip is postponed and, for the moment, no alternative date has been arranged.
On his first trip to Spain after his self-imposed exile in August 2020, over allegedly improper business deals in Saudi Arabia the former monarch wanted to make it a family affair with whom he planned to focus on making up for lost time. However, more recently he considered the idea of traveling to Barcelona to visit his great friend, Josep Cusí, who has been seriously ill for several months.
There was also the possibility that he would travel to Sanxenxo to take part in regattas at the Club Náutico, owned by another friend, the mariner Pedro Campos.
But when the King found out that he would not be able to set foot in the Palacio de la Zarzuela, he is said to have been very angry. He called his daughters, who had already agreed to spend a few days with him at Easter and asked them, instead, to travel to Abu Dhabi with his grandchildren.
In mid-March, when the Supreme Court Prosecutor closed the investigations into the monarch’s financial dealings, the Royal House published a statement signed by King Juan Carlos announcing that he would continue to reside in the United Arab Emirates but that he would also travel to Spain sporadically.
In the current political climate that still, however, might not be for some time.
