Lawmakers pave way for future King Felipe VI

AFP

Madrid

Spanish lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the abdication of King Juan Carlos yesterday despite anti-royalist protests, paving the way for his son Felipe to take the throne in the first royal succession of post-Franco Spain.

Nine days after Juan Carlos called an end to a 39-year reign that guided Spain from dictatorship to democracy, lawmakers agreed by a wide margin on a law that lets his son inherit the scandal-tainted crown, becoming King Felipe VI.

Members of parliament voted 299-19 in favour of the abdication, with 23 abstentions.

The legislation, which is required by Spain’s 1978 constitution, was backed by the ruling conservative Popular Party, the main opposition Socialist Party and the small centrist UPyD party.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told parliament that the monarchy is “the best symbol of the unity of the state”.

“Spain is a parliamentary monarchy with deep roots because Spaniards want it to be so,” he said.

The succession must now be approved by the Senate, Spain’s upper house of parliament, which will vote on the bill on June 17.

The 46-year-old Prince Felipe is expected to be sworn in by parliament on June 19.

Juan Carlos, who walks with a cane after multiple hip operations, won widespread respect for defending Spain’s democracy, notably appearing on television to thwart an attempted military coup in February 1981.

But a series of gaffes and scandals in the twilight of his reign caused his popularity to slump.

Many Spaniards were outraged that the king took a luxury elephant-hunting trip to Botswana in 2012 as they struggled to find jobs in a recession and the government teetered on the brink of a debt default.

Earlier this year, his younger daughter Cristina was named as a tax crime suspect in connection with her husband Inaki Urdangarin’s allegedly corrupt business dealings.

His son Felipe, a former Olympic yachtsman married to glamorous former television news presenter Letizia with whom he has two daughters, eight-year-old Leonor and seven-year-old Sofia, enjoys greater popular support.

Tiny left-wing and regional parties, including the United Left coalition and the Catalan separatist Catalan Republic Left, voted against the law and have called for a referendum on the future of the monarchy.

All 11 United Left lawmakers stood up and held up black and white signs that read “Referendum Now” during the debate in parliament.

Many wore red, purple and yellow badges, the colours of the flag of Spain’s second republic.

The United Left submitted an amendment to the abdication law which called for a referendum on the monarchy but lawmakers voted it down.

Rajoy has rejected calls for a referendum.

He argues that Spain’s 1978 constitution, which established a parliamentary democracy with the king as a mostly ceremonial head of state, was supported by a great majority in a referendum at the time.

Within hours of the king’s announcement on June 2 that he was abdicating, thousands of people massed in central Madrid and other cities to demand a referendum on the monarchy, which was only restored in Spain in 1975 after the death of General Francisco Franco.

A majority of Spaniards, 62%, want a referendum on the future of the monarchy at some point, according to a Metroscopia poll published on Sunday in top-selling centre-left El Pais.

If such a plebiscite were held, nearly one voter in two, or 49%, would prefer to have a monarchy with Felipe as king while 36% would support a republic, according to the poll.

A separate survey by Sigma Dos published by centre-right newspaper El Mundo on Monday found popular support for the monarchy has climbed since Juan Carlos announced his abdication.

Overall, 55.7% of those polled in the June 3-5 survey supported the institution of the monarchy in Spain, up from 49.9% when the same question was posed in January.

Asked whether Prince Felipe would make a good king, 72.9% of respondents said “yes”, the telephone poll of 1,000 adults showed.

Even more respondents, 76.9%, had a good or very good opinion of the prince.

The survey showed 76.4% of Spaniards believe the king, dogged by health woes in recent years, was right to abdicate in favour of the prince.

And 65.0% now believe the king’s 39-year reign was good or very good, up from 41.3% in January.

A total 57.5% agree the prince could restore the royal family’s lost prestige.

Among other royals, Queen Sofia won support of 78.5% of those surveyed. Letizia, the future queen, was favoured by 54.3% of respondents.

The survey revealed a generation gap on the question of the future of the monarchy, however.

The monarchy won support from 72.6% of people aged over 65. But among those aged 18-29, just 46.1% backed the monarchy while 46.3% said they would prefer another model.

Spaniards also appear to be frustrated that they have no say on the future of the monarchy.