Juan Carlos I traveled to Seville this weekend to attend the bullfight scheduled at 6:30 p.m. at the Real Maestranza. An event where the right-handed Morante de la Puebla will reappear six months after his fictitious retirement in Madrid and in which the Peruvian Roca Rey and David de Miranda complete the lineup, who will fight bulls from the Garcigrande ranch in Salamanca. The eldest daughter of the king emeritus, Infanta Elena, has also been one of the spectators of the bullfighting proclamation given in the theater of the same name by the journalist Rubén Amón. A few meters from said stage, on the same sidewalk, the bullfighting season will begin in the albero of the Plaza de Sevillana. Juan Carlos I has already been seen in the early afternoon of this Easter Sunday in the capital of Seville, where he arrived on a private plane from Abu Dhabi.
The emeritus king had not returned to Spain since November of last year, when he attended the family lunch held at the Royal Palace of El Pardo on the 22nd of that month, organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the monarchy. He wanted to have returned from Abu Dhabi, where he has lived since 2019, with the intention of participating in the regatta organized by the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) in March, but the conflict in the Middle East prevented the trip due to restrictions on air traffic.
This weekend’s visit to Seville just over a month after the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded his return to live in Spain. Something that the king emeritus wants. But Juan Carlos I sets an unavoidable condition: return home. That is, to the La Zarzuela palace, which was his home for 57 years, after he married Queen Sofia in 1962 in Athens. That is the main obstacle, although not the only one, for his return to materialize. The problem is that the La Zarzuela palace is not only the home of the Royal Family, but also the headquarters of the Head of State. Therefore, to prevent the scandals that surrounded him from damaging the institution, the Government and the Royal Family agreed that the emeritus king would not spend the night in La Zarzuela, or in other State facilities, when he came to visit Spain. This condition was transferred by Felipe VI to his father and accepted by him.
On March 7, 2022, after the investigations opened in Spain into the alleged fortune of Juan Carlos I abroad were archived – a decision that had also previously been made by the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office – the criminal horizon of Juan Carlos I was cleared. The emeritus then sent a letter to his son in which he informed him that he intended to “continue residing permanently and stably” in Abu Dhabi, although he would travel frequently to Spain. “In this sense, both during my visits and if I returned to reside in Spain in the future, it is my purpose to organize my personal life and my place of residence in private areas,” he added.
