Amid the complicit silence of the Spanish government and the main institutions of the state, the flight of former king Juan Carlos I to refuge in the United Arab Emirates has now lasted for one hundred days. His decision to decamp, in the middle of August, once his continuing presence in Madrid and the Zarzuela royal palace had become unviable, with numerous instances of corruption appearing in the press during the previous weeks, was the end of so-called juancarlismo as a political position which allowed one to accept the Spanish monarchy without being a monarchist. Spain's institutional umbrella was torn asunder and this was only the beginning of the revelations that have affected the figure who had been head of state between 1975 and 2014.
In recent months, a steady flow of news ranging from details of new bank accounts abroad to the use of opaque credit cards has kept the king emeritus in the focus. Nothing that has emerged has changed the position of Spanish pro-constitutionalist parties - the PP, the PSOE, Ciudadanos, and Vox: they say no to a parliamentary commission of inquiry, and no to a withdrawal of the police protection operation that surrounds the former king, which costs around 32,000 euros a month; and much less is an extradition order considered, as Juan Carlos is considered a free citizen and consequently enjoys full freedom of movement. There is little news of the investigations that were initiated by Spanish public prosecutors and the uncertainty about the true objective that they are pursuing remains present and raises questions.
In this Spanish state which uses two measuring sticks - protecting some and being merciless towards others - Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa also completed a milestone on Sunday, having spent a thousand days in prison injustly and for offences which are not legally consistent despite the harsh convictions they received. A period in jail that leaves an indelible imprint but also reaffirms that the 1,000 days of deprivation of liberty have not crushed their commitment to an independent Catalonia.
This is, in part, the defeat of a state that has failed to stabilize its institutions: devastating corruption continues in the monarchy, while the Catalan independence movement is divided and racked in internal confrontation - but still in a position to reimpose itself by a sizeable margin in the next Catalan elections on 14th February.