COMPELLING ADDITIONAL evidence that Spain’s severe financial problems have deepened into grave political and even constitutional crises came from an unexpected source last Tuesday: King Juan Carlos himself. The Spanish monarch never normally comments on political controversies. The only time the king has previously intervened directly in national affairs was when he faced down an attempted coup d’état in 1981.
Yet this week he chose to use a new medium – his revamped website – to send the oldest message in the Spanish monarchy’s repertoire: the unity of the country is paramount. His unprecedented internet letter was not expressed in his usual bland generalities. It was universally understood as a scarcely disguised reproof to those Catalans and Basques who are mobilising towards independence. It also seemed to criticise those citizens who are resisting the harsh cuts imposed by prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government.
“The worst thing we can do is divide our forces, encourage dissent, chase chimeras, and deepen wounds,” he wrote, calling on Spaniards to “defend the democratic and social model we have all chosen”.
One problem with this approach is that many Catalans and Basques would argue that they either never did accept, or no longer accept, the Spanish state as their natural home. Meanwhile, many Spaniards generally are questioning a social model that has left half Spain’s youth unemployed, and public services collapsing. The biggest problem with such an unprecedented royal intervention, however, is that if it is not seen to be effective it only makes bad matters worse.
And on Thursday, as almost everyone expected, Rajoy and the Catalan first minister, Arturo Mas, completely failed to agree how Madrid and Barcelona should share the chronic debt burden that threatens the entire state with bankruptcy. The king’s appeal did not inhibit Mas one whit from strongly hinting he will now call early regional elections, which could well become a kind of plebiscite on independence.
King Juan Carlos is widely credited for assisting Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s. But his standing has been battered recently, both by his own indulgence in an ill-considered elephant-hunting trip, and by corruption allegations against his son-in-law. Far from healing his nation’s wounds, his new departure has only added to anxieties about its future.