British newspaper The Telegraph, one of the most popular on the continent, has published a juicy interview with Corinna Larsen, known as Princess Corinna, and famous for years in Spain for her romantic relationship with former king Juan Carlos I and, more recently, for having shone a spotlight on the corruption of, initially, the king emeritus, and then on the whole of the Spanish royal family.
Corinna is blowing the whistle, as they say, on the modus operandi of the Spanish monarchy, which, she explains, was this: when one of its members needed money, they took it. In the article published by the UK newspaper on Sunday, the German businessperson says that she has felt her life to be threatened since she began to explain the usage made of the money obtained via the million-euro commissions on operations in which Juan Carlos I took part, and she describes with complete candour how on one of her visits to the Zarzuela royal palace, when she was the lover of the king emeritus, she made a tour of the palace which ended in the "money room," where there were large sums of banknotes.
Corinna continues to generate topics for conversation abroad and inherent in that talk is the image of Spain. It is a curious circumstance since the impact of her words hardly makes it across the Pyrenees to Madrid with the force and forcefulness of an incrimination. The largest Spanish media, the main political parties, the Spanish houses of parliament, the always attentive public prosecutors and the senior judiciary all ignore it. There is no issue, apart from the judicial matters that affect the independence movement, with, just recently, the persecution being transferred to Pablo Iglesias.
In the event that what Corinna has stated is true, it will be difficult for us to find out anything more with so many key Spanish institutions looking the other way unless Swiss justice advances. The immunity of Juan Carlos I when he was king did not cover Felipe VI when he was prince, let alone his sisters Elena and Cristina. Nor would the protected status of the current monarch cover his father once the latter had left the position of head of state. From Corinna Larsen’s narrative, there are enough grey areas to assert that the law does not protect both equally in the face of a practice that went on for so long.
Although it will be of little use, the pro-independence parties and Podemos should again demand a parliamentary commission of inquiry. Sometimes, defeats can be victories when they serve to show up the figures who are protecting possible systemic corruption in the highest institution of the Spanish state and who only offer negative responses to all requests for an investigation.