Juan Carlos leaves Spain: Felipe and the long shadow of the father

Much greater is the distance to Madrid, can hardly be. Unconfirmed media reports that Juan Carlos, for the time being in the Dominican Republic. The retired king to leave Spain at the weekend, before the Monday evening of the letter was known, in which he announced his son to take this step. In Madrid, Felipe's father on Tuesday morning, however, not only in the press as present as never before. Many articles read like an obituary for the 82-year-old Juan Carlos, who with his announcement to reduce the political pressure on his son, Felipe, for excitement.

Hans-Christian Rößler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, with its headquarters in Madrid.

For the king, it was apparently no Surprise. Both had sought in view of the ongoing allegations of corruption against Juan Carlos for a way out. With his voluntary statement from the Zarzuela Palace to the father and his son saved the expulsion from the Madrid residence, the had always demanded more from the politicians; the king's title is to retain Juan Carlos.

The face of modern Spain

Felipe fight for the future of the Spanish monarchy is not over yet. The decision of the retired monarch, the strength of the Institution of the Royal house, was the seat of the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. There is also criticism from the government came, however. According to the Podemos-Chairman Pablo Iglesias, it is more an "escape" abroad. She was a former head of state in an undignified and compromising the monarchy, wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister on his Facebook page. In the case of the separatist Catalonian left Republicans (ERC) said it sardonically, Juan Carlos was sure "the last of the Bourbon, the flees". You should not forbid him the Pass so he judicial inquiry. But Juan Carlos' lawyer has already announced that he is also abroad for the investigation, which was opened in Madrid against him, responsible.

Juan Carlos leaves the country, whose king he was almost forty years – "to protect my legacy, and my own Dignity as a Person", as he wrote to his son. His numerous Affairs, and particularly of the charges of bribery and tax evasion had put his political life's work is becoming stronger in the shadows. It was the fall during an elephant hunting in Botswana at the height of the economic crisis, which led to the fact that he had a 2014 volunteer to be on the throne. At that time the Spanish monarchy was in one of its most serious crises. His own biography, however, will remain closely associated with Spain away from dictatorship to democracy associated with it.