King Juan Carlos & Queen Sofia of Spain

[darius]

I think there are those who believe she is too strong a wife. Remember Felipe's grandmother Queen Frederica of Greece. I think Queen Sophia found the balance after seeing her mother's example. She is very beloved in Spain (even in Greece too) and I think she should continue. I agree that if Juan Carlos has health issues, he should consider abdicate. However he is a strong character and I do not believe he will.

I was referring to Letizia Ortiz.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. Me too. Some people think of Felipe as weak because how strong she is. The same charge at King Paul of Greece, Felipe's grandfather.

[grandduchessella]

Marlene had a link to an article about the King's eroding popularity on her blog. Part of the article read:

"Not so long ago, the boos that echoed around Vitoria’s Buesa Arena on the arrival of King Juan Carlos for the basketball Copa del Rey final at the weekend would have surprised many Spaniards and scandalised quite a few others. Such an open display of hostility towards the monarch would have been almost unthinkable. And yet on Sunday, when the booing was so loud that the playing of the national anthem ahead of the game between Barcelona and Valencia was cut short, it no longer seemed all that surprising or shocking, such is the sliding esteem of the Spanish royal family."

"“This is an unprecedented moment because the king has never before had so little popularity among Spaniards,” Josep Lobera, an independent polling expert, told Iberosphere. Only 53 percent of people now believe Spain needs a monarchy, down from around 70 percent five years ago. The elephant-hunting scandal has contributed to this erosion of support. But so too has the economic crisis. The financial woes of Spaniards have accentuated the errors and ethical shortfalls of some of their country’s biggest institutions. Banks, the judiciary and the political system are all victims of this phenomenon. So too is the monarchy.

But the Spanish royals have also been hurt by a corruption case in which the king’s son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, is implicated. The former handball player, who is married to the king’s younger daughter Cristina, is being investigated for allegedly embezzling public funds when he was head of a charity. Carlos García Revenga, the former secretary of Cristina and her sister Elena, has also come under scrutiny for combining his royal duties with work at the charity in question.
A recent El País editorial warned that “the impression is growing that the alleged corruption, tax fraud and other crimes being investigated affect people under the employment of the royal family.”

As part of a strategy to stem the opprobrium, last month, the royal family revealed its budget for 2013 had been cut by four percent. And in an attempt to restore his own image, Juan Carlos has once again used the camera. In January he turned 75, and as part of the low-key celebrations, the first television interview with him for 12 years was broadcast. "

The full article:
http://iberosphere.com/2013/02/spain-news-king-juan-carlos-7915/7915

Queen Elizabeth dragged herself out of the funk of the annus horribilis with years of hard work and the relative lack of scandal after the first years. Now she is riding a wave of popularity following William's wedding, her Jubilee and the Olympics. I wonder if Juan Carlos, given the concerns about his health and the fact that some of these scandals involve criminal actions as opposed to personal scandals, will have the time to do so as well.

[Eric_Lowe]

The Spanish Royal Family had not been so popular due to the scandal with the Infantas. The Crown Princess is popular with the masses but not with the aristocracy, who deemed her as a upstart and a nobody, while the crown prince is viewed as weak compared with his strong wife.

[Carolath Habsburg]

The scandals of the infantaS??. As long as i know, Helena just divorced Marichalar, that  s not an scandal and as far as i know, they have a very civil relationship. Well, with Cristina, is another story.

[Eric_Lowe]

A divorce is always not popular with any monarchy, and as you remember even the crown princess was once divorced. Queen Sophia's dream of her child continue the tradition of marrying royalty had been thrice dashed.

[Carolath Habsburg]

That s not popular but not an scandal. They did the thing in the right way with no scandal whatsoever.

[grandduchessella]

Marlene had posted this link on her blog:

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/02/24/inenglish/1361720991_965616.html

[Eric_Lowe]

Sad that Juan Carlos and his family had to dragged into it. Marrying below has consequences...That is why the Spanish aristocracy has little respect for the King and his family.

[grandduchessella]

Sad that Juan Carlos and his family had to dragged into it. Marrying below has consequences...That is why the Spanish aristocracy has little respect for the King and his family.

Well, Juan Carlos made as equal a match (really better than his own bloodline given his morganatic heritage) as possible and he's done a good job of sullying his throne through his own behavior. It's really sad given the admiration he had after the failed military coup decades ago. It was pointed out that people living in Spain now really remember only Franco or Juan Carlos--there isn't a huge attachment to the monarchy as an institution but rather it's popularity was tied to the popularity of Juan Carlos as a person. Who knows what the decline in that personal admiration will mean for the future of the monarchy in Spain.

[Eric_Lowe]

I know...but he doesn't seem to know that the aspect of the monarchy is very ancient. Queen Sofia had tried to marry her son to an established royal family or maybe money, but what he came up with was a divorced newscaster. I think think the Duchess of Alba did not attend that wedding. Now the hand ball player is another Sarah Ferguson in terms of embarrassment for the Spanish Royal family that proves to be true. Why can't they marry someone reliable and boring like Mathilde of Belgium, (aristocrat in Flanders) or the current choice of the future duke of Luxembourg is very respectable too. I think the Spanish Royal Family mistook short term popularity to long term problems with these marriages. They are popular like Letizia, but she was popular not as a royal but more like celebrity like Angelina Jolie or Lindsey Lohan or Kim Kardesian...Although in similar terms even Kate Middleton in London.

[grandduchessella]

Well, I think in today's society it's rather hit or miss. For every Stephanie (who is lovely) there is probably a Diana Spencer (in terms of toeing the royal line) or a Queen Sophia (in terms of marital happiness). For every Sarah Ferguson you can probably find a soon-to-be-Queen Maxima. I was just reading an article about how the Dutch royal family was against  Margriet marrying Pieter van Vollenhoven and yet they have, by all reports, a blissfully happy & successful marriage without a foot out of place. Her sister Irene married a fellow royal Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and the marriage ended in divorce. Most of the future consorts of Europe aren't from the aristocracy:

Duchess of Cambridge (thought Camilla has an aristocratic background); Crown Princess Mary of Denmark; Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway; Daniel Westling (I'm sorry, I forget the title he was given upon his marriage) in Sweden; the Princess of the Asturias; the Princess of Orange.

Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein, Stephanie of Luxemburg and the Duchess of Brabant are the exceptions rather than the rule now.

As to the Spanish house, Infanta Elena married into the aristocracy (the son of the Count and Countess of Ripalda) and--divorce. Juan Carlos's sister Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria, married outside the aristocracy.

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...At least Elena's husband did not get involved in a scandal. Cristina's husband is a real commoner and so is Letizia. There are may aristocrats from France to Austria to Germany & Spain. Why pick at the bottom of the barrel ? Although Kate Middleton (duchess of Cambridge) seem to do all the right things, but look out for possible for scandal from her brother and sister Pippa...

Also remember Camilla (Duchess of Cornwall) was descended from Alice Keppel, mistress of Edward VII. She was deem "unsuitable" until after the death of the Queen Mum.

Why is it not surprising that the Luxembourg, Lichtenstein and even Belgian Royal families are the cleanest of them in terms of scandal.

[Kalafrana]

Grand Duchess Ella

I agree entirely about the hit-and-miss nature of modern royal marriages. Another marriage which seems to be working well is that of Princess Anne and Timothy Laurence. Also the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (there was some concern when they married because her parents were divorced).

While the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent has broken up, they have quietly separated without any scandal and neither has put a foot out of place.

Ann

[grandduchessella]

I heartily agree, Ann. And, Eric, I think it's rather disgusting to refer to spouses as the 'bottom of the barrel'. So I guess it's a disgrace to come from anything less than the aristocracy--even though so many of them are engaged in trivial and rather seedy behavior themselves? Besides, you mention the Luxembourgs as being amongst the 'cleanest' and the Grand Duchess is from a middle class family herself!  Prince Louis is married to the daughter of a tiler

Maybe some of these middle class spouses have brought positives to the thrones--Queen Sonja in Norway, Queen Silvia in Sweden, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Henrik of Denmark. The only royal consorts are Phillip, Queen Sophia, the late Prince Claus, Queen Paola--and those families have been wracked with varying degrees of scandals. I am NOT saying there's a correlation, I'm merely using it to rebutt your argument. I think it depends entirely on the character of the person-- middle class, aristocrat or royal--who marries into those families, the structure of the royal family (witness the destruction of poor, talented, intelligent Masako of Japan) and the individual royals themselves.

But this is all getting off-topic--the bottom line is, the King is in trouble in Spain, mostly due to his own making and compounded by the allegedly illegal actions of his son-in-law. His personal popularity, upon which the foundation of the modern Spanish monarchy is built, has fallen from 75% to 50% over the past year.