MADRID, 5 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has defended that the Government has “very little to say” regarding the eventual return of the King Emeritus to Spain since it was his “personal decision” to move to the United Arab Emirates in August 2020.
This was stated in an interview with La Sexta, collected by Europa Press, after being asked whether Don Juan Carlos, who turns 85 this Thursday, should return to Spain.
“I think it is a personal decision that he made and the Government has very little to say there,” he stressed, stressing that the Executive “in this matter” has always gone “always hand in hand with the Royal Family.”
“It is a decision that the King emeritus made at that time three years ago and that it is a decision that corresponds to him exclusively,” he added.
Bolaños did not want to clarify whether he has discussed the situation of Don Juan Carlos with Queen Sofía, whom he has accompanied to attend the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
The minister has indicated that he has had the opportunity to “talk about different things” with her, but has argued that “private conversations” should remain “in areas of privacy.”
Don Juan Carlos moved to the United Arab Emirates in August 2020 and last March he notified his son, King Felipe VI, of his decision to establish his permanent residence in this Gulf country. However, he also conveyed his wish to be able to visit Spain periodically to see family and friends.
Since then, the former monarch has only made one trip to Spain, the one made at the end of May that took him first to Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) to attend the regattas and then to visit the Palacio de la Zarzuela for a few hours, where he met with Felipe VI.
Father and son met again in London on the occasion of Elizabeth II’s funeral but for the moment the date for a possible new trip to Spain has not been disclosed.
The Government has insisted all this time that the decision of the eventual return of the one who was king of Spain for almost four decades corresponds to the current monarch and his father, although both the president, Pedro Sánchez, and other members of the Executive, have maintained that what is desirable is that Don Juan Carlos offered “explanations” to the Spaniards for his conduct in the last years of his reign and after his abdication.
