JAIME PEÑAFIEL. Granada, 1932. Journalist. Probably the person who knows most of the Spanish Royal House and has just published the book 80 years of Sophia. Is not optimistic with the future of the monarchy and no cuts to speak. Total, it is already “old and rich”.
I must confess to You that I am a republican. You have one hour to convince me that make me a monarchist.I agree much of the words of king Faruq of Egypt. When we stopped, it was to the Côte d’azur so happy and asked him if it was worth it to have lost the throne and said: “No, because within a few years will only be five kings: the four in the deck and the Queen of England”. And the way of why we are going because, in reality, the monarchy has no reason to be. I don’t know when it will be up, but the Spanish monarchy has its time priced.So little future, will go to the king Felipe VI?There is No more to hear to the leaders of the left. Pedro Sanchez and Pablo Iglesias are harvesting King grass under their feet. I’m surprised why Philip is being so affectionate with the president when it is their greatest enemy. And it is normal that it is, because the left is republican. They are consistent in wanting to end up with him. Philip did not have the character nor the intelligence of his father. Spain has never been a country royalist, was under juan carlos. And with his fall, that’s it.You also stated ‘under juan carlos’. Did you ceased with the scandals of his last stage?No, I’m very grateful for the Transition, which was exemplary. Only for her, the name of don Juan Carlos to appear on the frontispiece of the History of Spain. We live in the franco we know. Then the monarchy deteriorated because it is a medieval system that has reached the TWENTY-first century barely. It is normal, least in England, monarchies fall all. What is the trick of the English Crown?That is a tourist attraction as Big Ben. The british are not monarchists, but have a reverential respect for the figure of the queen, by outdated it is. But Spain is a country very difficult. Spain has no sense of dignity.In what sense?It is a country that supports everything and have been. Here goes everything, but it never happens anything. Will the Monarchy and the Spanish will continue exactly the same. This sometimes worries me, and other, comforts me.How do you assess these first years of Felipe VI?Has had very bad luck. I believe that he himself did not expect the situation that we are living. Philip does not have the ability that their father had, or the left hand, nor the life experience. It is a good person without effort, but I see him worried, sad… Is the head of State that is dealing with the worst bull of democracy, with so many games… Juan Carlos finally drove him to abdicate between Sofia, Letizia and Felipe, and now repents. It was a plot family. The queen Sofia for the known reasons, and the two of them, for the power. And why do you think that the King now regrets?Because he lives in a political situation very complex that don’t know how it will end. What of Catalonia is a thing that comes very old and it is a matter of feelings. And the feeling can not. I have a feeling of Spanish, not andalusian, but a lot of catalans do have that feeling of Catalan. And against that you can’t fight. And to approach this from a political point of view, forget, and give some solutions that do not correspond with the reality.
I Am old and rich and that makes me dangerous,
has Just published a book about Sofia, which is not very well off.Sofia was a suffering wife who bore their suffering with great dignity, not like Letizia. Nobody has seen suffer in public despite the fact that it has terrible past and had been divorced. That was his big mistake. Is one of those women who is very attached to a man who makes them suffer, he was always very much in love with don Juan Carlos and never was reciprocal, because it was not a wedding for love. They both had their true loves, Sofia with Harald of Norway and Juan Carlos and princess Maria Gabriela of Savoy, but could not be. Harald had another hidden love and Franco, who was the one who decided on the life of Juan Carlos, vetoed Maria Gabriela because it was too modern. So they ended up together although it would have been more happy separately. That disaffection humanizó much to Juan Carlos.Seen as seen, perhaps a little too ‘human’ to be a king, isn’t it?Juan Carlos has made mistakes, of course, but I am a great admirer of yours with all its flaws. Has a few human values far superior to those of your child. Felipe is a person sad and bitter, very influenced in this by his marriage, which has been a failure.But that itself was a marriage of love.I’m here, although surprised, I want to break a lance in favor of Letizia. Letizia has not deceived anyone. The first day, the announced their engagement, as commanded silence to Philip and has not changed an iota since then. It is his character, which is phenomenal, but you forget that she is the consort. Are not the King and Queen: they are the King and his consort.According to account, the percentage of success in the marriages of the royal Family is low, pulling non-existent.Null. And the parents have been guilty of the failure of the marriages of his three children. Not I knew how to convince that you were in love with who should not and then Sofia tried to help them in marriage to the three with a resounding suspense. Doña Sofía has failed as a mother and as a wife. Not educated their children well and do not knew how to get a divorce. Juan Carlos abused publicly. However, unlike Letizia, has been a good queen. Never has exteriorized in your sadness, or your pain. Letizia jumps and Felipe is frightened, is afraid of him. So did not behave as a queen. Sofia is a professional who performs every minute of the office of a queen and that has been the only success of his life.Why does it say that Felipe VI has less values than his father?Juan Carlos is a man who has suffered greatly. Countless humiliations in the time of Franco. He lived with 75,000 pesetas for all. To eat, to live… When I joined Hello! he called me to ask me how much I would pay and compare. He controlled from the Coca Queues up calls to Sofia to Athens. To another, that he would have become a tyrant, but he humanizó. Understand the suffering and humiliation because he felt. But Felipe was born, grew up and lived as the son of kings. All that has been. And you don’t know what is the real life.But neither the life of don Juan Carlos is exemplary. Why they stopped their adventures for so long?The Spanish press is very courteous and now is unfair to him, it seems that you are recovering the lost time.How does the royal House of his criticisms?I try to be fair, but I’ve been a critic my whole life. I was mining two years, I’m not an aristocrat… the Royal House does not like criticism and I know that I have written things you would not have liked, but in general I have respected. But now I’m like. I heard a phrase from George Clooney that I have taken as my own: “Beware of me, that I am old and rich”. And that is very dangerous because it already gives me like everything (laughter).How he came to be so close to the King emeritus?The King can’t have friends. Only the corrupt presumed to be, used as a check to the carrier. I know the King since I was in the military Academy, I have made more than 100 trips abroad with him as a journalist, was very close to me when he died my daughter… And that mark on you. But the most important day of my 60-year career was the 22 of November of ‘ 75, when they were proclaimed kings, and that evening from seven to nine the passed alone in The Zarzuela with this journalist. After the proclamation, went to the Royal Palace in open top car and he saw me and I motioned that he be called. And when I did, Alfonso Armada as it told me to go to there. Is it only you?Yes. I thought it would be a small reception, but I came and I met the King in cleaning cameras, and the queen reading telegrams. The two alone in his office. I was amazed. And in the following two and a half hours of the most important day of your life or the phone rang or no one knocked on his door. Strangely, it seemed that he had been overthrown, and not crowned. I imagine that the family was with Don Juan, who was the big loser betrayed; the right was in the queue to see the corpse of Franco, and the left was celebrating that he was dead or also in the queue to make sure. No one was awaiting them. And I there telling them about my life.What was so serious the error protocol of Pedro Sánchez on 12 October?The serious thing is that the Royal House want to save Sanchez, who is trying to finish with them. Seems to lie. We have taken a capotazo that Sanchez is not going to thank you because, in reality, he thinks that she should be there. In fact, it bothered me that made him take off from there. But the fault was of the chief of protocol, who was not quick.Isn’t it the protocol one thing obsolete and pulling absurd?No. The protocol is important, and each time less people take him seriously. Are a few rules that help around the world if you know and respect. Avoids many ridiculous. In addition, you can use it to insult. No one insulted better with the protocol of the Duchess of Alba. I chose how to place the people at the table and that was enough to humiliate their enemies.You have spoken of plebeyización of the monarchy. Is it something negative?The monarchy is a mediaeval institution, and you can’t democratize. Democratic is a republic, the monarchy is what it is. Perhaps the word commoner to be aggressive, but let’s say that the monarchy has tried to modernize. At least have ended up with inbreeding… And in some countries has been achieved such as the Netherlands or England. What In Spain? Psé. With Letizia tried to modernize, but only vulgarizó. It was up to the average.Have you not contributed more to the popularization of the infidelities and corruption cases?The theme of the friends is dear to the king Juan Carlos does not affect for anything in Spain. We are a country with a very permissive with that. All of our kings have had mistresses and bastards. At least Juan Carlos has had the good fortune of getting rid of the second. Do but who can surprise you what of friends? If it is a Bourbon! It is genetic. Although it would have been well that was discrete. But just the same, in Spain the lovers do not bother with what really gets people here is the money.Then, what hope of life gives to the Spanish monarchy?I read recently that She is going to be a great queen… That is nonsense. The question is whether it is going to be even queen. Philip can be king, four, six… eight years later. But within a short time Spain did not exist as a nation nor ever will be the monarchy. It is ridiculous to talk of Eleanor as a future queen because you never what is going to be. Flatly: no. Let us leave in peace to the girl, although is the own Letizia the that the is promoting. The monarchy will end, what we will see and it will not be a tragedy. How do you get from mining reporter, journalist of the heart?I started in an agency where he did everything. The same thing covering a war than an earthquake than a royal wedding. Then Hello! it gave me the opportunity to be a journalist of evasion, so that there was no nonsense in the franco regime because you avoided having to have an opinion and that has saved me. Have gotten me to go hunting with Frank, but in all those years only spoke to me once. He asked Me if a photographer was a mason and I acojoné. I did not go. I am proud of many things in my library, I’ve written a lot of crap, but I have been a professional. Besides, what more da ya, I’m old and rich.What is the craziest thing that has happened to him?I was at the coronation of crazy Bokassa eating human flesh. It was discovered years later that had fridges full of dead bodies of school children who had been killed on the occasion of the coronation and the cooked that day. And the worst thing is that I was rich.Came to me to become a monarchist and I’m leaving without knowing if it is you…it Is impossible for me to be a monarchist why?Because I know you.
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