One more time, and I have already lost track of how many it has been, different parliamentary groups in the Congress of Deputies, led by the parties of Catalan independence, have repeated their call for the creation of a commission of inquiry into the former king Juan Carlos I aimed at uncovering the role he played in arms sales to the Arab states that are the likely origin of his incalculable fortune. Although one doesn't need to be very perceptive to conclude that the initiative will not get very far, it is quite understandable that Catalan, Basque and Galician pro-independence parties along with Compromís, Más País and Nueva Canarias continue relentlessly putting the demand to make it plain how the tentacles of the Spanish deep state have tied the hands of the PSOE, which time and time again simply lowers its head before the force of the narrative on this issue from the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos.
That this move coincides with the reshuffling of Pedro Sánchez's government and the supposed spirit of regeneration it has transmitted could be seen as an opportunity to act differently to the way the PSOE has handled it so far. But Sánchez's remodeling aimed at removing much of the dead weight around him and conveying a image of being in authority to end up being authoritarian is not about such things. It is going to rejuvenate the government, as if this in itself were an asset, increase the importance of the party’s local government power centre and place more women in the executive. Youth, local power and feminism, the Spanish prime minister stressed, and he didn't deceive anyone about whether hopes of putting an end to the corruption of the monarchy could be generated.
The parties of Spain's regime of '78 need to shore up their power however they can and even at the expense of looking the other way from the Spanish monarchy. There is a lot at stake, among other reasons, because investigation of the king emeritus would open up the issue of the Transition and how illicit enrichment has existed as a structural feature for a very long time. And that, for this to be possible, many important people have played their part and different governments of one colour and another have looked the other way.
It would have consequences beyond his person and affect his entire family, and the ramifications would surely reach the current king. Neither the current government nor any possible government of Spain will allow it. Nor will any state administration, or the tax department, or the Supreme Court. There may, at most, be flirtations, but nothing more. And Podemos, which has not joined the parliamentary initiative, will play with one foot in each camp.
While all this is happening, it will continue to be given the same coverage, that is, none, in the established print newspapers of both Madrid and Barcelona. And the point is that the system holds together, in part, due to this. Complicities in keeping these issues off the front pages believing that, in this way, the public doesn't realize. It is like thinking that time stopped in the era of the printing press.