In the depths of its current misery, Spain's monarchy has found its best protector: the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), leader of the coalition government. This Tuesday, a week after former king Juan Carlos I made a massive back tax payment, the weekly cabinet press conference featured only PSOE members. And both of them, María Jesús Montero and Juan Carlos Campo, closed ranks with the institution of the parliamentary monarchy. Members of junior government partner Podemos, who have questioned the royal role, followed the event on television. Justice minister Campo warned them that such criticisms are not the way to do things: "Moving one piece could make the whole thing collapse", he said, referring to Spain's constitutional regime of 1978.
In today's press conference, and in spite of all the scandals, Juan Carlos Campo insisted on calling for "prudence and tranquility" and "differentiating the behaviour of individuals from the institutions". In this regard, the justice minister warned that "this parliamentary monarchy supports the rest of the state", and that it is not good to "play with the idea" of a structural change in the model of the Spanish state. "The state model is like an arch: remove one piece, and the whole thing could collapse," he said. That's why he asked metaphorically "not to shoot before you're very clear on the terrain". And he asserted that the Spanish Constitution provides mechanisms for its own reform.
María Jesús Montero spoke in similar terms, referring to the words of Pedro Sánchez himself defending the Constitution "from its first Article to its last". Spanish government spokesperson Montero guaranteed that the executive will "safeguard" all the institutions. In this respect, she reiterated that "we have a contemporary head of state", who "is interested in, visits and knows the plural nature of the Spanish state". She also stressed that he is "strongly commited to setting a good example". That is why "there is no doubt about the government's attitude." She "reserved" her opinion on the recent Podemos video comparing the Bourbon royal family with the Narcos series on the Colombian mafia. Nor would she comment on a hypothetical return of king emeritus Juan Carlos to Spain for Christmas.
Asked about the proposal for a commission of inquiry into the former king, which the Congress's procedural bureau had rejected hours earlier for the fifth time, Montero simply said that "Unidas Podemos has its position and the PSOE its own." The PSOE's: a vote against the commission and thus ensuring that Spain's elected representatives won't investigate the monarch who fled to the United Arab Emirates in August.
Five rejections
The facts keep on emerging, and Juan Carlos I has now regularized his fiscal situation after committing tax fraud, but this hasn't changed anything at the Congress of Deputies. This Tuesday, the lower house's procedural bureau has again rejected the request for a commission of inquiry into the affairs of the king emeritus, now in residence in the United Arab Emirates. The bureau's negative decision was, as on other occasions, supported by the report made by the parliamentary legal services. And the combined votes of the PSOE, the PP and Vox again meant that the proposal for an inquiry will not be discussed by the chamber. Once again, Unidas Podemos, one of the promoters of the plan, found itself on its own and far outnumbered when bureau MPs cast their votes.