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IN IMAGES: King Felipe VI marks 10 tough years on Spain’s throne

King Felipe VI on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of his accession to the Spanish throne, putting the spotlight on a decade of efforts to restore the image of the monarchy following scandals that led his father Juan Carlos to abdicate.

Published: 19 June 2024 17:33 CEST
IN IMAGES: King Felipe VI marks 10 tough years on Spain's throne
Spanish Crown Princess of Asturias Leonor, Spanish Princess Sofia, Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI attend the commemorations marking the 10th anniversary of the proclamation of Spain's King Felipe VI at the Palacio de Oriente or Royal Palace in Madrid on June 19, 2024. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

“During these years of service, commitment and duty have been the pillars of my action as king,” he said during a ceremony at Madrid’s Royal Palace.

Felipe, then 46, was sworn in at Spain’s lower house of parliament on June 19th, 2014, just 17 days after his father announced he would step down following scandals regarding his finances and love life that led many Spaniards to question the role of the monarchy.

The aerobatic team “Patrulla Aguila” (Eagle Patrol) of the Spanish Air and Space Force flies above the Royal Palace. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

“The king our era needed,” El Mundo newspaper headlined on its front page on Wednesday, adding that the first ten years of his reign had “restored prestige to the Crown”.

READ ALSO: Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

In his first speech after becoming king, Felipe promised “a renewed monarchy for a new era”. He promptly ordered an audit of the royal household accounts and issued a “code of conduct” for its members.

King Felipe, Queen Letizia and their daughters on the balcony of the Palacio de Oriente or Royal Palace. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

The following year he stripped his elder sister, Princess Cristina, of her title as Duchess of Palma de Mallorca after she was indicted as part of a probe money laundering and fraud probe into her husband, Iñaki Urdangarín.

In 2016, she became the first member of the Spanish royal family to stand trial since the monarch was restored in 1975.

The princess was ordered to pay a fine and Urdangarín was convicted and served a jail term of five years and ten months. The couple have since separated.

Spain’s royal family and several politicians pose for photographs with 17 people decorated for civil merit during the commemorations. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

The best system?

In 2020, Felipe renounced any future personal inheritance he might receive from his father and stripped him of his annual allowance after fresh details of his allegedly shady dealings emerged.

Even though investigations of Juan Carlos’s finances in Spain and Switzerland have since been dropped, Felipe has continued to keep his distance from his father, who left Spain for Abu Dhabi in 2020.

Juan Carlos came to the throne in 1975 after the death of long-time dictator Francisco Franco. He earned respect for his role in guiding Spain’s transition to democracy.

The wife of Spain’s Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, attended the commemorations despite the corruption scandals she is currently embroiled in. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

But the money and sex scandals eroded his standing. Spaniards appear divided over Felipe’s efforts to restore the image of the monarchy.

While 47.4 percent of Spaniards feel he has kept his promise of creating a monarchy “renovated for a new era”, 45.1 percent disagreed, according to a poll published Sunday in El Mundo.

Some 49.6 percent believe a constitutional monarchy is “the best system” for Spain, while 40.4 percent disagreed, according to the poll.

Spanish King Felipe VI talks with Spanish Crown Princess of Asturias Leonor. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

‘Serving everyone’

Since Felipe’s eldest daughter Leonor turned 18 on October 31st last year, the heir to the Spanish throne has had an increasingly public role.

She swore loyalty to the Spanish constitution that day in a ceremony in parliament, a necessary step for her to be able to succeed to the crown.

READ MORE: Leonor turns 18 – What you need to know about Spain’s crown princess

Felipe, wearing a navy suit and patterned tie, appeared on the balcony of the Royal Palace on Wednesday with his wife Letizia, a former TV journalist, and their daughters, Leonor and Sofia, as part of a ceremony marking his accession to the throne. The royal family waved to crowds gathered below.

During a gala lunch at the palace, Princess Leonor and her sister led guests in a toast to their parents.

“Because since we were born, we have been taught the value of this institution, of the Crown, its usefulness to our society and its purpose of serving everyone,” Leonor said

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Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

After a decade on the Spanish throne, King Felipe VI is steadily growing in popularity. If things were ever to turn sour, could the Spanish public and government actually oust the monarch and turn Spain into a republic?

Published: 17 June 2024 17:15 CEST
Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

King Felipe VI is set to celebrate a decade on the Spanish throne. He became king on June 19th 2014 following the abdication of his scandal-ridden father, former King Juan Carlos.

This meant that Felipe took over the crown needing to somewhat rehabilitate the public image of la Casa Real. According to polling data released to coincide with his decade as king, it seems he’s done a decent enough job of it so far. In fact, after 10 years on the throne his approval rating has grown.

READ ALSO: What do Spaniards think of their royal family?

Felipe obtained an average score of 6.6 among Spaniards polled, surpassing, for the first time, the 6.5 mark. This is according to a survey carried out by the IMOP Insights Institute for Vanitatis.

In fact, after a decade the majority of Spaniards approve of the King’s performance: 46.4 percent have a positive view of his work, compared to 20.9 percent who are critical or hold a negative view.

Older people generally have more favourable views of Felipe and the monarchy, whereas under 25s are the only group with a negative opinion of him.

In terms of regional breakdown, the most pro-Felipe part of the country was found to be Andalusia and the least, to the surprise of absolutely nobody in Spain, was Catalonia.

Many royal commentators in Spain argue that Felipe, along with his daughter, Princess of Asturias Leonor, have taken big steps to restoring the Spanish crown’s credibility.

That Felipe’s personal approval rating has grown over time is testament to that, and positive ratings, especially after a decade in the public eye, is something most politicians could only dream of.

That is to say, there doesn’t seem to be any danger of Spaniards turning on their king for now. But what if Spanish public opinion changed over time and suddenly Spain did want to become a republic?

Legally, constitutionally speaking, could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Spain’s Queen Letizia attend a ceremony for the Spanish Crown Princess of Asturias. Photo: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP.

The steps to a republic

Even if Spaniards themselves wanted it, transitioning from a constitutional monarchy to a republic involves a lot of steps that make it highly unlikely, perhaps even impossible.

The change would require two-thirds support in both chambers of the Spanish Congress, something that is very unlikely in the current political climate. Such consensus across both houses is very, very rare.

But, theoretically speaking, to get rid of the king the Spanish legislature would first need to amend Article 1 of the título preliminar of the Spanish Constitution, which outlines the state structure and clearly says that: “the form of the Spanish state is a parliamentary monarchy”.

To do this, the government or Congress would have to call for a vote on constitutional reform in the Congress of Deputies and it would have to pass with a qualified majority, that is, with a majority of two thirds or more, which is equivalent to 234 or more deputies.

READ ALSO: How much do Spain’s king and royal family make?

It would then have to be ratified in the Senate with the same qualified majority. Of the 265 senators, 177 would have to be in favour.

But it doesn’t end there. If both chambers agree, Congress would be dissolved, a general election would have to be called, and the voting would have to be repeated among the new deputies.

However, there’s still one final hurdle: a general referendum. The people’s referendum is meant to function as a sort of fail-safe or quality control on the actions of the legislature, especially on such a huge constitutional question.

Javier Tajadura, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of the Basque Country, told Spanish website Newtral that “the referendum serves as a form of citizen control of what the Cortes want to carry out, and it must be carried out after the votes [in both houses] have been taken.”

If, after all the votes in Congress pass with suitable majorities, the referendum also results in a yes and it is undeniable that Spaniards want to change from monarchy to republic, Spain would become a republic.

Then the debate would shift to whether Spain would need an entirely new constitution, or it would need to make some (pretty huge) changes to the pre-existing constitution of 1978.

So, yes. Spain could, in theory, become a republic. Clearly, the Spanish system has a lot of checks and balances embedded within it that makes moving from a monarchy to a republic constitutionally complicated, politically unlikely, and, in realistic terms, very improbable to the point of being almost impossible.

As Miguel Ángel Cabellos, Professor of Constitutional law at the University of Girona, puts it: “Beyond the fact that it is a change of an essential and core element of the political system, which would also radically divide society, the truth is that from a legal point of view the difficulties are very notable, one could almost say insurmountable in practice.”

READ ALSO: The one thing to know about each of Spain’s ‘crazy’ kings and queens

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