The satellites of the left closest to the Government have already begun to sow the idea that if King Felipe VI does not attend today the first event prepared by the Government to celebrate this year the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death, it is because “he doesn’t want to,” because he hasn’t seen fit to change the agenda.
Zarzuela has reported that it is an issue that has been addressed with the President of the Government and that there is agreement on the matter, in an attempt to avoid any type of controversy. But this is not the line that the terminals on the left follow.
Therefore, to silence this movement that seeks to establish the idea that Felipe VI distances himself from these celebrations – within a pattern that the left uses to encourage the idea that if you do not participate in the Government’s agenda you are with the dictatorship, and if you do it, you are a true democrat – Zarzuela has already announced that the King will be in several events, one of them will be general over the Monarchy, without further details, and another, about the fields of concentration.
To this debate over an agenda that Moncloa could have organized in a different way to guarantee the presence of Felipe VI, if it really was its main objective, yesterday the Government added another inconvenience by leaving the decision of whether or not to invite Don Juan in the hands of the King. Carlos. This is a celebration that cannot be understood without taking into account the Transition and the role of the Monarch in it.
The Government has so far avoided commenting on the role that Don Juan Carlos should have in the events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco. When the historical reality is that Juan Carlos I had a very decisive role in the process that is to be celebrated: two days after Franco’s death, he assumed the Head of State, appointed by the dictator.
President Pedro Sánchez will open this initiative today, supported by his Government and the cream of the left. The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, appeared yesterday to announce the creation of a technical commissioner and the experts who will coordinate the events, despite the fact that the project has already been launched. He did not provide budget information, but simply referred to a future appearance in which he will detail the cost of the campaign.
He was asked up to three times about the role of Don Juan Carlos, with no answer other than referring to the decision made by the Royal House. “We are in permanent contact with the Royal House and what we do we will agree with it.”
But the reality is that the Government does not have in mind to facilitate the presence of Juan Carlos I in any of these events: they commemorate the death of the dictator and not the coronation of the Monarch. The justification they give is that they cannot honor someone who today resides outside of Spain and who faces serious accusations that he has not faced due to his constitutional inviolability and the statute of limitations.
In the “kitchen” of Moncloa, they are counting on this project to help them regain public presence with issues other than their parliamentary weakness or the corruption cases that are being prosecuted.
The Government and the PSOE have also already taken advantage of the PP’s refusal to participate in these events to send the message that this decision proves its connections with the Franco regime and that it is a party hostage to Vox. In that sense, Minister Torres insisted yesterday that Franco’s death is the time to celebrate freedom, despite the fact that this did not come until years later with the first democratic elections in 1977 and the approval in 1978 of the Constitution. And to leave the PP in a bad light, he recalled that this is what has been done in other countries such as Portugal, Germany, Italy or Greece, where, as he stressed, they do remember the fall of all their dictators.
The feeling left by the first explanations given by the Government about the actions for Franco’s death confirm that they seem designed to become a minefield for the Head of State and also for the main opposition party. And this happens at a time when Felipe VI has maximum popularity, contrary to what happens to the President of the Government.
The last year has ended with a rift between Moncloa and Zarzuela, although the latter has made an effort to conceal it at all times and to downplay the rudeness on the part of the Government. It is not only Paiporta, but also how the Government was about to ruin the state trip of Don Felipe and Doña Leticia to Italy, leaking that they did not want to attend the reopening of Notre Dame and that, in addition, they supposedly did not inform Exteriors.