King Felipe is expected to try to turn the page on another turbulent year for Spain’s royal family in his annual Christmas Eve address, amid speculation that his father, Juan Carlos, hopes to return to the country soon.
The former monarch abdicated in favour of his son seven years ago and left Spain abruptly for the United Arab Emirates in August 2020 in an attempt to protect the crown from a series of damaging allegations about his financial dealings.
Felipe had sought to stem the damage months earlier by stripping Juan Carlos of his annual stipend and renouncing his personal inheritance from his father in response to reports that he was in line to receive millions of euros from a secret offshore fund with ties to Saudi Arabia.
This month the Spanish newspaper El Mundo cited sources close to Juan Carlos earlier as saying the 83-year-old was keen to return to Spain on a temporary basis as early as January.
The report came hours after Geneva’s top prosecutor’s office said it had closed a criminal investigation into allegations of money laundering stemming from a $100m (£75m) payment from Saudi Arabia, because of insufficient evidence. Juan Carlos was not among the five indicted suspects in the case.
The prosecutor’s office said the investigation had established that Riyadh made the payment to a Panama-based foundation whose beneficial owner was Juan Carlos, but it had been unable to clearly link the payment to a 2011 deal under which a Spanish consortium was awarded a €6.7bn (£5.7bn) contract to build a high-speed rail line in Saudi Arabia.
The Swiss investigation was one of several launched in recent years into the financial arrangements of the former king, undermining the Spanish monarchy’s fragile grip on power and denting the popularity of a leader who played a pivotal role in restoring democracy to Spain after the death of Gen Francisco Franco in 1975.
Supreme court prosecutors in Spain continue to examine allegations of kickbacks from the Saudi Arabia deal and potential tax fraud.
Juan Carlos has said he never told his son he was to benefit from two offshore funds, but has made no further comment on the allegations.
Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, brushed off suggestions of an imminent return this month, saying the government had not had any conversations with the royal household about it.
“We’re talking about two different institutions, which obviously collaborate and cooperate in an extraordinary way, but the Spanish government has not been consulted on this question,” Sánchez said. “Of course, I believe that King Juan Carlos has to provide explanations.”
The former king’s wish to return to Spain could be further complicated by a case playing out in a high court in London, where a former lover has alleged she was subjected to a campaign of harassment by state agents directed by him.
In a skeleton argument presented to the court in early December, lawyers for Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said she was seeking damages for the “great mental pain, alarm, anxiety, distress, loss of wellbeing, humiliation and moral stigma she has suffered.”
Juan Carlos’s lawyer argued that sovereign immunity should apply in the case. In written arguments before the court, Daniel Bethlehem QC said the former king “rejects the allegations made against him, and any alleged wrongdoing by the Spanish state is denied in the strongest of terms.”
