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Article: Spain's 'ordinary' King; Juan Carlos.
- Article from:
- Europe
- Article date:
- October 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Delegation of the European Commission. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When general Francisco Franco died in 1975, jokes about the young heir designate, Juan Carlos, made the rounds. Nowadays, though, jokes about the King would only furrow the foreheads of even the most skeptical subject of Spain's thoroughly modern monarch, a constitutional figurehead who has nonetheless made himself personally respected and politically indispensable to his country.
"Spaniards are lukewarm monarchists but fervent Juan Carlists," one pundit has written. We have a better King than we deserve," adds Nobel laureate Camilo Jose Cela and, according to a 1991 poll, the majority of his countrymen go along with that view. Seventy-seven percent of Spaniards ...