Google News: King Juan Carlos of Spain to Abdicate

Europe |King Juan Carlos of Spain to Abdicate

MADRID — King Juan Carlos of Spain is abdicating in favor of Crown Prince Felipe, his 46-year-old son, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced on Monday.

The king’s abdication, after almost four decades on the throne, follows health problems but also comes amid a decline in his popularity, particularly as a result of a corruption scandal centering on his son-in-law that has also put the spotlight on the royal family’s lifestyle and finances at a time of economic crisis and record joblessness.

The king, 76, announced his abdication in a letter to Mr. Rajoy. Mr. Rajoy then made the decision public in a short televised address, during which he called King Juan Carlos “a tireless defender of our interests.” Mr. Rajoy added that the abdication process would take place “in a context of institutional stability and as proof of the maturity of our democracy.”

King Juan Carlos was expected to make a separate address later Monday to detail the reasons for his abdication.

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Juan Carlos came to the throne in 1975, after the death of Gen. Francisco Franco. He was credited with playing a key role in consolidating Spain’s return to democracy, particularly when he helped avert a military coup in 1981. He has also been cast as providing stability in a land confronting separatist efforts in the Basque region and in Catalonia.

The king’s reputation has been tainted by questions around the spending habits of his 48-year-old daughter, Princess Cristina, and her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, the Duke of Palma, after a judge opened a corruption investigation.

The king’s son, Prince Felipe, is a former Olympic yachtsman who is regarded as relatively untouched by his family’s scandals. In May 2004, he married Letizia Ortiz, a divorced television journalist. Tens of thousands of spectators cheered them in the rain outside the Almudena Cathedral, but the ceremonies were overshadowed for some Spaniards by the memory of commuter train bombings two months earlier that had claimed 192 lives.

Mr. Rajoy said that the Spanish Constitution would be amended to permit the king to abdicate.

“His Majesty, King Juan Carlos, has just communicated to me his will to give up the throne,” Mr. Rajoy said. “I’m convinced this is the best moment for change.”

The Spanish royal family’s public standing fell sharply during the period of turmoil following the 2008 financial crisis. “The protective shield of the royal family has simply disappeared,” Carmen Enríquez, a writer and television journalist specializing in the family’s affairs, said last year.

“We are in a serious crisis, where suffering citizens feel they should know where every cent of public money is being spent, including by the monarchy,” she said.

Last year, the opposition Socialists took steps in Parliament that, for the first time, formally requested information about the king’s personal finances.

King Juan Carlos recently went to the Middle East to help promote Spain’s business interests in the region, but health problems during the past two years have generally slowed the pace of his travels.

The surprise announcement in Madrid on Monday is not the first sign of generational change in Europe’s largely ceremonial royal houses in recent years. In May 2013, Willem-Alexander of the House of Orange-Nassau became the first king in the Netherlands in 123 years when his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated after reigning for 33 years.

In the British monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II, 88, has begun transferring some duties to her son, Prince Charles, 65, but there has been no question, in public at least, of an abdication in the House of Windsor since Edward VIII relinquished the throne in 1936.

Raphael Minder reported from Madrid and Alan Cowell from London.