Spanish king celebrates not-so-happy 70th birthday

Jan 8, 2008, 14:36 GMT

Spain\'s King Juan Carlos I (2-R) delivers a speech as Spanish Crown Prince Felipe de Borbon (R) looks on during the traditional meeting with Spanish Army on Epiphany Day at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain, 06 January 2008. EPA/MANUEL H. DE LEON

Madrid - When Spain's King Juan Carlos I throws a big party for his 70th birthday this Wednesday, the occasion could be happier.

The party for 400 at the Pardo palace comes four days after the actual birthday, which the king celebrated in private with his family on Saturday.

The unprecedented birthday dinner will be 'a public act for exalting the monarchy,' as republican far-left leader Gaspar Llamazares put it.

The monarchy now needs such an act probably more than ever since Juan Carlos became king after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

As Juan Carlos' reign entered into its 33rd year in November, the monarchy was also coming under unusual criticism, both from regional separatists and from conservative Catholics, in 2007.

The royal palace, however, says the king has emerged from the controversy even more popular than before, a claim backed by a recent poll.

Spaniards gave the king a grade of 8 out of 10, slightly higher than in 2000. More than 80 per cent of the 10,400 people who were questioned saw the monarchy as solid, while less than 13 per cent said they were republicans.

On the occasion of his birthday, Juan Carlos has been showered with congratulations from all over the world, with the main Spanish parties stressing his role in consolidating democracy.

Juan Carlos was born on January 5, 1938 in Rome, where his grandfather Alfonso XIII had gone into exile after a republic was proclaimed seven years earlier.

Juan Carlos returned to Spain at age 10 to be educated under the supervision of Franco, who had picked the young prince as his successor, bypassing Juan Carlos' father Juan.

Seen by many as the late dictator's puppet on his accession to the throne, Juan Carlos faced obstacles which he handled 'cleverly, sensibly and with a good political sense,' historian Stanley Payne wrote.

The king helped to dismantle the Francoist state, giving up many of the powers the dictator had left him with, and helping to usher in a modern parliamentary democracy.

His biggest push in favour of democracy occurred in 1981, when paramilitary police and military officers attempted a coup. Juan Carlos immediately put on his uniform and went on television, ordering the soldiers back to barracks.

'Democracy would have come to Spain in any case, but it would have taken longer and more blood would have been shed,' said lawyer Jaime Sartorius, who studied with the king.

Juan Carlos' role in thwarting the 1981 coup earned him the almost unquestioning admiration of Spaniards until recently, when separatists from the northeastern region of Catalonia contributed to opening a debate about the monarchy.

Small groups of separatists burned pictures of the king and of Queen Sofia, and a Catalan republican party criticized the royal family's lack of financial transparency, apparently contributing to the king's decision to appoint an auditor to monitor his spending.

In conservative Catholic circles, on the other side, the king has come under some criticism for not speaking out against the Socialist government's failed attempt to negotiate with violent Basque separatists and against the legalization of homosexual marriage.

Others, on the contrary, have accused the king of meddling too much in politics. When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called a former Spanish premier a 'fascist' at an Ibero-American summit, Juan Carlos snapped at him: 'Why don't you shut up?'

The sentence became one of the international catch phrases of 2007, and ended up doing the king's image more good than harm.

Earlier in 2007, Juan Carlos came out in public defence of the monarchy in an unusual speech, saying he had presided over 'the longest period of stability and prosperity in democracy ever experienced by Spain.'

'He felt pain over his loneliness' when politicians took their time to come to his defence against critics of the monarchy, a visitor to the Zarzuela royal palace said.

The untouchable aura surrounding the royals has also been shattered by a scandal over a sexual caricature on Crown Prince Felipe and by increasing media scrutiny of the royals' private lives, such as Princess Elena's separation from her husband.

Analysts attribute the increasing criticism partly to the coming of age of a new generation which does not remember Franco and cannot appreciate the king's role in consolidating democracy.

It is often said that Spaniards are juancarlists rather than monarchists, and the key to the future of the monarchy could be, to which extent Juan Carlos is able to pass his popularity on to Felipe, who will turn 40 on January 30.

Both the king and the prince 'know with absolute clarity that they must earn their salaries day by day,' said Fernando Almansa, a former protocol chief at the royal palace.