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The response of the Spanish government to the news of the corruption of former king Juan Carlos I is beginning to be a little more than obscene. The closing of ranks among the parties of the regime, with the more than surprising complicity of Podemos, is sending a worrying message about Spanish democracy. Latest news on the subject can no longer be dismissed as rumour supporting specific interests, but rather it consists of statements by the manager of the former monarch's account at Switzerland's Maribaud Bank. The claims are not recent but were made to a Swiss prosecutor in 2018 and are becoming known now at a time which coincidentally finds us in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic and, due to the state of alarm, under lockdown - now beginning to be de-escalated, but still in full force. So there will be no rumblings from the parties, no demonstrations, no accusatory stares, no media outcry at the height of the gravity of these events. On the other hand, there will be a new attempt to cover up all that is known and which seriously affects the Spanish monarchy.

How can one not be scandalized by what the king emeritus's banker has stated? How can one look the other way when he has stated before the Swiss prosecutor that on one occasion, in 2010, when Juan Carlos was Spanish head of state, he presented his office with 1.7 million euros in cash, which, he claims, the king of Bahrain had given him? Is it credible that this was a donation as the monarch told him or was it, as everything suggests, one more succulent commission? The method used also draws one's attention and the confidence with which this quantity of banknotes was moved from the Gulf countries to Switzerland. What impact might it make on Spanish society now, that we know that Juan Carlos I was travelling around the world with briefcases full of money which ended up being deposited in an account in Switzerland?

On two occasions Spain's Congress of Deputies has rejected the proposal to create a commission of inquiry on this question. The matter is likely to be put forward again and rejected due to the interests of the state. We are talking about an account which received, among other donations, one from Saudi Arabia worth 65 million euros which was paid in to the Panamanian foundation Lucum of which John Charles I was the first beneficiary and present king Felipe VI the second. The current monarch has tried to distance himself from his father's situation and in March he even issued a harsh press statement stating that he was renouncing his father's inheritance. As a fire break, this hasn't worked, as for a long time Felipe did nothing and only reacted when the scandal was already circulating in the media.

Juan Carlos I's offshore business is, at the moment, a major source of problems for the Spanish monarchy and for the image of Spain abroad. When you are asking for money in Europe, the message that corruption has reached as far as the Spanish royal family itself is not the best letter of presentation.

This news has not been in the lead story in any TV newscast in Spain, and in the printed press this Saturday it will surely have little or no presence.