For many years, in Spain people heard that “I’m not a monarchist, I’m Juancarlista”. Day by day there are not many admirers left of the figure of Juan Carlos I for obvious reasons: the explosion of scandals since the famous “I’m sorry, I was wrong and it won’t happen again” has been such and so impossible to control that it is difficult to understand what exactly has happened. That’s why, ‘Saving the King’ is such an important documentarydespite the fact that he remains a bit half-hearted in his intentions.
jumping above the law
We already knew almost everything that the HBO Max series tells: the “hunting accident” that killed his brother, the massive tax fraud, his affair with Bárbara Rey, the flight to the United Arab Emirates… But seen in context and with first-hand testimonies (from Iñaki Gabilondo to Mario Conde), everything takes on a new meaning that perhaps we reduce to “What a scoundrel” at the cost of seeing it over the years. ‘Save the king’ raises the life of the emeritus as an excuse to raise the complex plot that was created to save the monarchy at the cost of sacrificing him socially.
Years ago, the cloth that was placed in front of the Spanish crown prevented a still fragile Spanish democracy from finding out about its skirt messes (which, frankly, are the least of it), of their fraudulent companies and their sociopolitical goings-on. After a stage in which some magazines dared to publish tabloid reports against him, such as ‘Tribuna’, and in view of an express pot about to explode, we have gone in a very short time from ‘Felipe and Letizia’ to ‘Salvar to the king’. From the dreamlike and majestic to the pathetic quagmire.
The HBO Max series starts from Franco and nothing is silent or tiptoe for some of the most punishable and embarrassing acts of the Bourbon. He talks about his friendship with Franco, 23-F, the house he had to be with his loved ones, the plots of murder and embezzlement, his obsession with Corinna, his total and absolute detachment from reality… After decades in which speaking ill of the king was practically forbidden because he “saved the Transition”, it is still surprising that this documentary can exist without any kind of political pressure for your withdrawal. But there is a reason for it.
nice lazy
‘Save the King’ itself gives the reason why it can exist: when Juan Carlos I was convinced to divorce Sofia and marry Corinna (a coup that none other than Mariano Rajoy wanted to stop), the king’s team decided it was time to open the dam, let all the water out and force him to abdicate to protect the institutionsomething they have half achieved: if in 1996 Republicans were barely 9.7% of the population, now it is around 50% according to Electomania studies.
The HBO Max series does not finish daring to put a couple of tiptoes to Felipe VI, but it does he drops that he had to be sold as the perfect and infallible king to put him in opposition to his father: look at this guy, what a good thing we got rid of him and someone upright leads us. It is a shame that ‘Save the King’ itself makes it clear that it is a wall imposed from the same powers that allow the series to exist, but it does not prevent the absolute enjoyment of the series.
I think that both monarchists and republicans are clear that, no matter how much you prefer one state model or another, Juan Carlos I was not the right one to lead it, but seeing all the reasons why it was this way compiled in less than three hours is impressive. At times it seems like a spy movie: destroyed evidence, secret international trips, hidden microphones, recorded calls, death threats, infidelities… If in Spain we don’t do our particular ‘The Crown’ it’s because fiction can never surpass reality.
A little kiss… Muac
Although what ‘Save the King’ tells is incredible and demonstrates the existence of a plan to safeguard the monarchy at any social cost, politics gives way to our most primal instincts: gossip. The HBO Max series tells the different affairs of Juan Carlos I with Bárbara Rey, Corinna or Queca Campillo. The great novelty is not that they are no longer “dear friends” but rather “lovers”: it is that we have tapes in which he speaks with them and that explain some of the key moments in the history of pink Spain.
In the late 1990s, Bárbara Rey appeared in her car in front of the press saying that they were going to kill her. Later, in a call to ‘Tómbola’, he announced that he had a microphone all over his house, something that Jesús Mariñas took advantage of to make people laugh. Many in Spain laughed at the vedette, and she even described her as disturbed, but now this documentary is capable of avenging her: Barbara Rey was right.
‘Save the king’ is a review of the history of democracy in Spain through characters, media, blackmail, betrayal and sex, but it is also the portrait of a character who took his inviolability too much to heart and destroyed all his possible legacy, almost forcing a country to change its model of state. Still in 2022, and being aware of everything that the documentary will have to have kept silent (all this seems only the tip of the iceberg), it’s amazing to see the self-destruction of someone who had everythingincluding the press.
At the end of these three episodes, nothing will be left of the campechano: it will have been replaced in the head of the most monarchical by the image of a fraudulent and obsessive hustler. Do we know everything they say? Of course. Do we have to tell it on television for it to exist? Definitely.