It was, in its day, already controversial that, in a year when many citizens have had to tighten their belts because their economic situation has worsened, the Spanish government budget for 2021 included an increase in the amount allocated for the expenses of the royal family by 6.9%, which rose to 8.4 million euros. And thus it begins to be even more concerning that, as we have been learning for some time, other areas of public spending also provide camouflage for opaque money which ends up having, as its final addressee, the Palace of the Zarzuela. In recent days we have learned that the state-run National Heritage agency is paying for costs which, it appears, have little or nothing to do with the heritage of a state and which, in essence, are being used to launder spending, if not anything worse.
Thus, we learned on January 14th that Juan Carlos I has three household assistants who have been tasked with helping to provide him with his needs in the United Arab Emirates since last August. To these three people should be added an indeterminate and unknown number of security agents at present. The assistants, receiving salaries thought to be paid by National Heritage, which is controlled by deputy PM Carmen Calvo's department, are, in practice, a free service offered by the state to the former king and no restrictions have been placed on them at any time despite Juan Carlos's flight to the Middle East as a result of the corruption cases surrounding him. With regard to police or Civil Guard agents, the opacity is even greater as the Spanish interior ministry refuses to provide any information, claiming that security reasons make it impossible.
This Monday we learned of another expense that has remained outside the budgeted costs of the Royal House, which ends up been paid by National Heritage and amounts to 500,000 euros. It involves the maintenance of three swimming pools, two in summer and one heated for winter, for the use and enjoyment of the royal family and their guests. This half a million euros is intended to pay for daily cleaning of pool filters, and control of water quality. Since this is all that the epigraph details, we know little else. Although it does seem to be a lot of money to take care of three pools, as the cost breakdown works out at 1,370 euros per day - just under 500 euros per pool per day.
One of the biggest problems of the Spanish monarchy, not the only one, is the current monarchs' lack of any empathy which would bring them closer to the concerns of the public. In Catalonia this was reflected in a very significant way, through the speech of Felipe VI on October 3rd, 2017, which marked the breaking of ties with the royal family for a very large proportion of Catalans. It was not in essence a disagreement with the pro-independence world - it was that too, but the approach used by Felipe on the subject of police violence, maintaining a silence despite the perplexity of many diplomatic offices, even moved him away from a significant part of the right-wing and, above all, from left-wing unionism. The most worrying thing is that there has been no reflection on that mistake, but rather a maintenance of positions.
In recent months, with the pandemic, nothing has gone significantly better for the monarchy. These are not times when luxury and wastefulness are on the increase, as the situation of more and more people who have lost their jobs, are on ERTO furlough plans, have had to close their businesses or cannot continue as self-employed is suffocating. The monarchy can be a magnificent decorative object in times of calm but we are not even close to such a state. And it seems that no-one in that palace wants to wake up to that.