Since his accession to the throne in 2014, King Felipe has been trying everything possible to polish up the tarnished reputation of the monarchy. One of his first decisions as monarch and head of state was to bring more transparency to the royal family’s business and income. He stripped his sister Cristina and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018 for tax evasion, among other things, of the duke’s title of Palma and officially excluded them from the royal family. Since then, Felipe has disclosed the income of the crown and reduced his salary himself. Since he was on the throne, members of the royal family are no longer allowed to accept gifts.
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But nothing seems to help. Above all, his father’s scandals are too omnipresent in the media and public debates to this day. The Geneva public prosecutor’s office dropped the investigation against the former Spanish king for money laundering at the end of last year. But the Spanish tax authorities continue to investigate. For example, Juan Carlos I. has been in exile in Abu Dhabi for a year and a half, where he is going in the summer of 2020 in a night and fog action. The once beloved monarch who Spain ruled between 1975 and 2014, was long revered by his subjects. Because of his defense of the fledgling democracy during the attempted coup by the Francoist military in 1982, he was almost idolized by his compatriots, who forgave him for almost everything – including the constant affairs.
With lover on luxury safari
But at the latest since he was caught with his lover Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein on a luxury safari in Botswana in the middle of the terrible financial and economic crisis, his bonus has been lost by the Spaniards. After that, numerous corruption and bribery affairs became known. He is said to have pocketed 100 million euros in bribes just for arranging the construction of a high-speed railway line in Saudi Arabia by a Spanish consortium and deposited them in a Swiss bank account, bypassing the Spanish tax authorities. In such scandals, even the ongoing dispute between Felipe’s mother Sofía and Queen Letizia is lost.
Juan Carlos then apparently transferred a large part of his secret fortune from the bribes to an account belonging to Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein to make tracking more difficult. However, he demanded the double million amount back, but his ex-lover fought back because it was said to have been a “gift”. Legal proceedings are currently under way in a British civil court. Sayn-Wittgenstein accuses the ex-monarch of having threatened her if she didn’t return the funds. The 57-year-old plaintiff reports “covert and open surveillance measures” as well as “trespassing and criminal damage” to her property in England. Juan Carlos would have put her in “fear and terror”.
With such headlines, Felipe’s attempt to improve the crown’s standing is not easy. This is also reflected in the latest polls by the newspaper “Público” from last October. Accordingly, 39.4 percent of Spaniards are now in favor of a republic, and only 31 percent for the continuation of the parliamentary monarchy. 43.8 percent of those questioned would even welcome a referendum deciding on the continued existence of the monarchy.
And the next scandal is already in full swing. Felipe’s older sister Infantin Cristina (56) and the former handball world star and lawyer Iñaki Urdangarin announced the end of their marriage on Monday after more than 24 years and four children together. “By mutual consent, we have decided to end our marital relationship,” the couple said in a joint public statement.
Only last week it was revealed that Urdangarin has a new relationship. Lecturas magazine published photos showing Urdangarin and a strange woman walking hand in hand on the beach at Bidart in France’s Basque Country. It later emerged that the woman was a colleague of Cristina’s estranged husband, who worked at a law firm in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Spanish Basque Country. Infanta Cristina still lives in the shared apartment in Geneva, where the two fled in 2010 when the “Nóos” corruption case became known.
In the 2018 affair, Urdangarin was sentenced to almost six years in prison for embezzlement of six million euros in tax money, forgery of documents, money laundering and fraud. It was about allegedly undeclared donations from his foundation Nóos and secret bank accounts abroad. Since last year he has been free again under certain conditions. The sister of the current king was accused of aiding and abetting tax fraud, but was eventually acquitted. However, it was the first time in the history of the Spanish monarchy that a member of the royal family stood before the cadi. Even the level-headed and always reserved monarch and the glamor factor of his wife Letizia can do little against so many bad headlines.
Source: Nachrichten
