Spain’s disgraced and exiled former monarch has praised Francisco Franco, saying he could be “tender and benevolent” and thanking the dictator for making him king, paving the way to democracy.
Juan Carlos, 87, speaking to Le Figaro before the publication earlier this week in France of his much-awaited memoir, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death, painted a positive picture of the dictator.
“Why lie, if it was he who made me king — and in fact did so to create a more open regime?” he told the French newspaper when it suggested his account would shock Spaniards taught that Franco was comparable to Mussolini or Hitler.
He also condemned the “treachery” of a courtier who claimed the king had given him his backing to mount a coup d’état in 1981. It is the first time Juan Carlos has discussed details of the failed coup, which he faced down, saving Spain’s fledgling democracy only six years after the death of Franco.
The memoir, titled Reconciliation: Memoirs of Juan Carlos I of Spain, was published in France on Wednesday and will come out in Spain next month after official objections to it coinciding with commemorations of Franco’s death, which at the dictator’s behest prompted the restoration of the monarchy.
According to Spanish media, the royal household considers the book unhelpful to the monarchy and has blamed its appearance on “bad advice” from the former king’s new circle in exile in Abu Dhabi.
Juan Carlos writes that he does not have bad memories of Franco. He “had a clear vision of the Spanish state and its future”, he notes. “He did not hide his sympathy for me. He could even be somewhat tender and benevolent. I had great respect for [Franco] — I appreciated his intelligence and his political acumen. I never allowed anyone to criticize him in front of me.”
Juan Carlos expresses amazement at the dictator’s longevity in power: “No one was able to overthrow him or even destabilize him, which, over such a long period [37 years], is quite a feat.”
The former monarch also reminisces about being at Franco’s death-bed. “I was sitting next to him, in his hospital bed,” he recalls. “He took my hand and said, as if with his last breath, ‘Your Highness, I ask only one thing of you: maintain the unity of the country.’ That was his last wish.”
Juan Carlos adds: “He did not ask me to preserve the regime as it was or the principles of the National Movement … I therefore had a free hand to implement reforms, as long as the unity of Spain was not called into question. I gave freedom back to the Spanish people.” Franco died a few days later on November 20, 1975.
Juan Carlos left Spain in 2020 after corruption investigations into his financial affairs, which have since been shelved. “I decided to leave so as not to hinder the smooth running of the Crown or disturb my son in the exercise of his duties as sovereign,” he writes.
Describing the moment he went into exile, he writes that when he had already boarded the plane that would take him to Abu Dhabi, Juan Carlos received a call. “Where are you going, boss? To London?” his son, King Felipe VI, asked him. “As a sign of respect, my son calls me that, although in private I am still ‘Dad’,” explained the king emeritus, as he is officially styled.
“No, to Abu Dhabi,” he replied.
“Take care!” Felipe VI replied. “It was our last conversation before many months passed.”
Juan Carlos mentions his strained relationship with his son with sadness. “My son has turned his back on me out of a sense of duty,” he writes. “I understand that as King he must maintain a firm public stance, but it hurt me … that he was so insensitive.”
He adds: “I can’t hold back my emotions when I think about some members of my family whom I no longer have and Spain, which I miss so much. I live without prospects, without any certainty that I will ever be able to live in my country again.
“Above all, I hope to have a peaceful retirement while I live, to resume a harmonious relationship with my son and, above all, to return to Spain, to my home.”
Juan Carlos also has kind words for his estranged wife, the former queen Sofía, whom he “bitterly regrets” did not visit him in Abu Dhabi as his daughters, princesses Elena and Cristina have.
He makes public his long rumored dislike for Queen Letizia, Felipe’s wife, writing that he did not miss his daughter-in-law. Her incorporation into the royal family “did not help the cohesion of our family relationships,” he complains. There is “personal disagreement” between him and her.
He said he wrote the book “to exorcise our demons, which are returning”, apparently referring to Spain’s political divisions and the erosion of the post-Franco consensus that underpinned Spain’s democratic transition.
One of the most striking parts of the interview concerns the attempted coup of February 23, 1981, when the armed Guardia Civil led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero stormed parliament.
Juan Carlos claims the episode was not a single plot but “three coups at once — Tejero’s coup, [General Alfonso] Armada’s coup, and that of the politicians close to Francoism”.
He accuses his former personal secretary and trusted aide, Armada, of betraying him by deceiving the generals into believing he was acting on the king’s behalf. “Alfonso Armada spent 17 years by my side. I loved him dearly and he betrayed me,” he said.
He said he told the novelist Javier Cercas, who has written about the coup, “How can you believe I was involved?” and insisted that his role was to defend democracy, not conspire against it.
Confirming the uncertainty that prevailed after Franco’s death, he described the subsequent two years as a time when he wielded “all powers — the power to pardon or to confirm a death sentence”, which he says he never used: “If I had said no, the generals would have overthrown me.”
The book, which was written with the French writer Laurence Debray, also refers to the financial and romantic scandals that have plagued him.
Of his former mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn (née Larsen), with whom he has been locked in a bitter legal feud, he said: “This relationship was a mistake that I bitterly regret.” He does not mention her by name once in the 500-plus pages of the book.
Juan Carlos’s fall from grace began when it emerged in 2012 that he had been on an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana with her while Spain languished in economic crisis. He abdicated in favor of his son in 2014 amid corruption scandals.
Of the incident in Botswana, when the monarch broke his hip during a safari, he writes that it “had a detrimental impact on my kingdom and my family life” and “damaged my reputation in the eyes of the Spanish people”, triggering “a manhunt in which I turned out to be easy prey”.
He adds: “I had to show the Spanish people that I was aware of the seriousness of the situation.” That is why, on leaving the hospital in Madrid, he spoke a now famous phrase in front of the cameras: “I am very sorry. I was wrong and it will not happen again.”
His memoir, he said, is meant to serve as a defense against attacks against him, an act of reconciliation and as a reminder. “Democracy did not fall from the sky,” he said. “I hesitated to write this book, but little by little I realized that my friends’ children and grandchildren had no idea who Franco was or about the democratic transition that followed.”
He says he left Spain “to help my son”, seeking a place “where journalists from my country could not easily find me”.
In one passage he refers to Diana, Princess of Wales, with whom he denies any romantic involvement, describing her as “cold, taciturn, distant, except in the presence of the paparazzi”.
Isambard Wilkinson is the Spain correspondent for The Times of London
