Pedro Sánchez's Spanish Socialists (PSOE) had, in recent days, kept quiet about the latest proposal for an inquiry into the king emeritus, Juan Carlos I. The governing party had avoided setting a position, waiting to hear what the parliamentary lawyers would say. But in the end, despite changes made to the petition from previous submissions aimed at starting an investigation, the legal services came to the same conclusion: the commissions received by Juan Carlos I for the Saudi Arabian high speed train cannot be investigated by parliament. In the face of this, this Tuesday, the lower house's procedural body, the Bureau, again rejected two requests for a commission of inquiry registered last week by Unidas Podemos and eight other parties - all of the pro-independence and pro-sovereignty parties across the state. The 'no' votes in the Bureau came from the Socialists, the PP and Vox. Only Unidas Podemos opposed them. This is the fourth time this year.
Unidas Podemos, ERC, JxCat, the CUP, the PNB, Bildu, Més País, Compromís and the BNG had submitted a new request for a commission of inquiry, different from the previous ones. To find a way through the legal blockages, the new petition called for the investigation to cover the period from 2014 on, when Juan Carlos I ceased to be head of state. The previous three proposals had not placed a time frame.
The new petition also opted for euphemisms. Earlier texts spoke of "alleged illegalities committed by members of the Royal House". Now, there was ambiguous talk about "diplomatic and trade relations between Spain and Saudi Arabia, its connections with Spanish institutions and companies and their effects on the treasury." But even so, it was not enough to win the approval of the lawyers.
In their new report, the Congress's legal services state that a proposal for such an inquiry cannot be accepted because the royal prerogatives of inviolability and non-accountability "are absolute, encompass the entire period over which he exercised as head of state and have permanent legal effects." That is , they emphasize that, although the effects extened till after 2014, the facts being investigated begin during his reign, and therefore it is impossible to separate one thing from another.
Thus, the Bureau of the Spanish lower house has again overturned the request for a commission of inquiry into the monarchy. This is the fourth time this year. All the petitions registered in recent months, also with the support of Unidas Podemos, have ended up in the Bureau's waste paper basket, discarded by the same three-party majority: the PSOE, the PP and Vox.