If, in the report presented in February by the prestigious business weekly The Economist, Spain had become a flawed democracy - the Economist Intelligence Unit downgraded the Spanish state to this category after considering that it could no longer be included in the group of countries considered as full democracies - this Tuesday, the Council of Europe approved a report concluding that Spain has not made the grade for any of the 19 recommendations formulated by the international body to fight corruption. The report, which was prepared by the Group of States against Corruption (Greco, from its French acronym), is devastating, as of the 19 points that have been analyzed and compared with what Spain had been asked to do, it assesses that in seven there has been a little progress - not much - while in the other 12, the Spanish response has been even more disappointing, as they have been directly ignored.
One of the most striking aspects about the report is the criticism of the Civil Guard and the National Police - precisely, two police forces that play an important role in the fight against corruption - for not having adopted measures to prevent it; and with respect to their integrity, the reports regrets that there is no strategy for monitoring corruption in these two bodies and that "decisive action" is required to remedy it. Can a European state, considered democratic, impassively endure such a resounding analysis in a dossier entitled Report on Democracy, Judicial Independence and Corruption? Apparently not. But the Spanish state has given sufficient evidence of deficits that are structural - not anecdotal ones as we are often led to believe - which are more than just worrying.
Simultaneously with this report from the Council of Europe, another was published by Amnesty International in which it states that freedom of expression and the right to protest continue to be threatened in Spain. Examples include the failure to strike out the "gag" law, the conviction and imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasél and the excessive use of force by the security forces in controlling the demonstrations; it notes that one piece of good news - "the only good news for 2021" - was the release of activists such as Jordi Cuixart - former president of Omnium - and Jordi Sànchez - former president of the ANC - "who should never have entered prison".
If this happens in Spain, where it seems that there is a deep state acting and applying a double standard, and the abandonment by the justice system of the court case of former king Juan Carlos I is one instance that is more than obvious, the same will not applicable in the United Kingdom, where Spain's Bourbon patriarch has been denied his monarchical immunity and will have to sit in the dock. His former lover Corinna has, since 2012, been pursuing legal action for harassment, carried out through various people in his circles. At root, beyond the personal entanglement with ex-mistresses, there is money. Many millions of euros and, specifically, the question of how Corinna's bank account came to be the resting place for 65 million euros, apparently part of the controversial donation of 100 million dollars, made in 2008 by king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to the then-Spanish monarch.
It is yet to be seen if he will end up sitting in the dock, and if that is the case, what will transpire and what rulings will be made by English judge Matthew Nicklin. Also, the repercussions they could have for his children and, in particular, for current king Felipe VI. British justice is not like Spanish justice and it is natural that the royal palace in Madrid is nervous rather than tranquil, having envisaged previously that the patriarch's provisional return would pass with a certain low profile. But that will no longer happen.