There are many ways in which the disinterest in the Spanish monarchy can be seen, but Felipe VI and his father close the year with bad news. The former has achieved the third worst audience figure since the the head of state's speeches began to be broadcast on television. He lost 1.2 million viewers compared to 2021, a far cry from the golden years of achieving 80% and 90% shares. Juan Carlos I also closes 2022 with a survey on his popularity: 55.1% give him a fail grade and only 21% of those surveyed approve him. He gets an overall 3.34 out of 10.
The saccharine-flavoured package which was broadcast after Felipe VI's poor performance in his traditional Christmas speech smacks head on into the reality: less interest than ever. His audience share was 36.5% in Catalonia and 48.7% in the Basque Country; at the other extreme, 76.4% in the Community of Madrid. At that time, it was on TV1, Antena 3, Telecinco, La Sexta and Cuatro. In Catalonia, the major public broadcaster TV3 did not show it, nor did Basque regional television, while in the rest of the state all of the regional channels connected to the signal to retransmit the royal message. It was difficult, if not impossible, to find a viewing alternative outside those regional channels that did not broadcast his address. Despite this, its popularity fell from 10.8 million viewers in Spain in 2020 to 6.7 million this year, a decline of more than 30%.
For his father, exiled in the United Arab Emirates after the corruption scandals, things are not going any better. A survey published this Monday indicates that only 7% of Catalans approve of him and 62.3% do not. These are ridiculous support figures that express two things perfectly: Catalonia's break with the Spanish monarchy, and the absolute loss of confidence in the man who guided destinies as the head of state between 1975 and 2014. Almost 40 years that have left behind a sour aftertaste, with all those that aspects seemed to be the achievements of those years having fallen one by one: from Juan Carlos's role in the 23-F coup of 1981 to the Spanish transition.
The fact that over and over again the PSOE has aligned itself with the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, refusing to vote for a commission of inquiry in the Cortes on Juan Carlos I has prevented the investigation of a situation that deserves to be brought into the open for reasons of democratic hygiene. And also, if there was really any intention to change the existing perception of the monarchy. The facts are relentless and devastating, even though the parties of the 1978 regime look the other way and pretend that nothing is happening.