Role in Contemporary Spanish Politics
The election of socialist leader Felipe González to the Spanish prime ministership in 1982 marked the effective end of the King's active involvement in Spanish politics. González would govern for over a decade, and his administration helped consolidate the democratic gains and thus maintained the stability of the nation. While the king is generally reckoned as having a merely ceremonial role in politics, he commands great moral authority as an essential symbol of the country's unity.
Under the constitution, the King has immunity from prosecution in matters relating to his official duties. This is so because every act of the King as such (and not as a citizen) needs to be undersigned by a government official, thus making the undersigner responsible instead of the king. The honour of the Royal Family is specially protected from offences by the Spanish Penal Code. Under this protection, Basque independentist Arnaldo Otegi and cartoonists from El Jueves were tried and punished.
The King gives an annual speech to the nation on Christmas Eve. He is the commander-in-chief of the Spanish armed forces.
When the media asked Juan Carlos in 2005 if he would endorse the bill legalising gay marriage that was then being debated in the Cortes Generales, he answered "Soy el Rey de España y no el de Bélgica" ("I am the King of Spain, not of Belgium") – a reference to King Baudouin I of Belgium, who had refused to sign the Belgian law legalising abortion. The King gave his Royal Assent to Law 13/2005 on 1 July 2005; the law legalising gay marriage was gazetted in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 2 July, and came into effect on 3 July.
In November 2007 at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago de Chile, during a heated exchange, Juan Carlos interrupted Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and asked him, "¿Por qué no te callas?" ("Why don't you shut up?" using the familiar "tu" you form to underline the disdain). Chávez had been interrupting the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, while the latter was defending his predecessor and political opponent, José María Aznar, after Chávez had referred to Aznar as a fascist and "less human than snakes". The King shortly afterwards left the hall when President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua accused Spain of intervention in his country's elections and complained about some Spanish energy companies working in Nicaragua. This was an unprecedented diplomatic incident and a rare display of public anger by the King.
In April 2012, Juan Carlos faced criticism for going on an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana. Cayo Lara Moya of the United Left party said the king's trip "demonstrated a lack of ethics and respect toward many people in this country who are suffering a lot" while Tomas Gomez of the Socialist party said Juan Carlos should choose between "public responsibilities or an abdication". In April 2012, Spain's unemployment was at 23 percent and nearly 50 percent for young workers. El País estimated the total cost of a hunting trip at 44,000 euros (USD 57,850), about twice the average annual salary in Spain. A petition called for the king to resign from his position as honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The WWF itself responded by asking for an interview with the King to resolve the situation. In July 2012, WWF-Spain held a meeting in Madrid and decided with 226 votes to 13 to remove the king from the honorary presidency.
Read more about this topic: Juan Carlos I Of Spain
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