Abstract
During the next few years the king was to make a substantial contribution to the consolidation of the democratic system he had done so much to bring about. Above all, he would play a decisive role in inducing the armed forces to accept some of the more visible consequences of the change of regime, and in particular the process of decentralisation that was to lead to the creation of a semi-federal state. Unfortunately this process was accompanied by an escalation of terrorist violence largely aimed at provoking the armed forces into some form of military intervention, which eventually took place in February 1981.
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Notes and Reference
Gutiérrez Mellado, Un soldado, pp. 107–8.
El País, 11 May 1977.
In October 1977 Milans had been removed from the Brunete armoured division, which was fast becoming an ‘ultra’ stronghold, and appointed captain-general of the Third Military Region, based in Valencia.
ABC, 26 December 1979.
ABC, 21 February 1980. Il Messagero, 22 March 1980.
El País, 25 April 1980; Fraga, En busca, pp. 201–2.
Urbano, Con la venia, yo indagué el 23F, pp. 38–40.
El País, 1 May 1980; ABC, 15 June 1980.
Prieto and Barbería, El enigma del ‘Elefante’, p. 85; Vilallonga, The king, p. 125. In November Juan Carlos received a report compiled by the secret service, CESID, which outlined the various initiatives currently under way, aimed at dislodging Suárez by both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means. See ‘Panorámica de las operaciones en marcha’, reproduced in Prieto and Barbería, El enigma, pp. 280–93.
For Múgica’s version, see El País, 13 March 1981; Armada, Al servicio, pp. 223–4; Prieto and Barbería, El enigma, pp. 92–6; Oneto, La noche de Tejero, p. 16; Antich, El virrey, pp. 83–5.
Fraga, En busca, pp. 223–4; Urbano, Con la venia, pp. 41–2; Carrillo, Memorias, p. 710; Semprun, Federico Sánchez se despide de ustedes, pp. 192–94.
Armada, who was at La Zarzuela on 18 December, claims to have been shown a draft of the Christmas speech by the king, but does not explain for what purpose. Armada, Al servicio, p. 225.
Suárez/Toledo.
Armada, Al servicio, p. 230; Merino and Segura, Jaque al Rey, p. 57–8. Armada had already discussed the king’s views with Milans on 17 November.
ABC, 7 January 1981.
Suárez/Toledo; Urbano, Con la venia, pp. 52–4.
Meliá, Así cayó Adolfo Suarez, pp. 75–6; Calvo Sotelo, Memoria viva, pp. 23–32; De la Cierva, Retratos, pp. 305–7; Suárez/Toledo.
Suárez/Toledo. Unlike Arias, in the wake of his resignation the Duke of Suárez made full use of his title, to the extent of having his shirts embroidered with a ducal crown.
Author’s interview with Suárez. Martín Villa, Al servicio, p. 116. Vilallonga, The king, p. 124.
El País, 6 February 1981.
The book in question was Cernuda, Oneto, Pi and Ramirez, To do un Rey. Oneto, Los últimos dias de un presidente, pp. 174–8.
Fraga, En busca, p. 298.
Suárez/Toledo; Armada, Al servicio, pp. 231–3.
After the coup Armada requested the king’s permission to use the contents of their conversation of 13 February in his defence, but was turned down. Armada, Al servicio, pp. 154, 230, 234–5; Gutiérrez Mellado/Toledo.
Author’s interviews with Alfaro Arregui and Robles Piquer; Vilallonga, The king, p. 133.
Author’s interview with Fernández Campo. Vilallonga, The king, pp. 127–28.
Vilallonga, The king, p. 119.
Urbano, Con la venia, yo indagué el 23F, p. 251.
According to Juan Carlos, ‘if I had wanted to carry out an operation “in the king’s name” but without his consent, the first thing I’d have thought of doing would have been to isolate him from everyone’. Vilallonga, The king, p. 131. This, however, would have rendered Armada’s plan inviable, since its success largely depended on the king’s consent.
In the wake of the coup, a direct link was set up between La Zarzuela and TVE, enabling royal messages to be relayed directly.
El País, 24 February 1981.
Vilallonga, The king, pp. 134–5.
Carrillo, Memoria, pp. 716–17; author’s interview with Suárez.
Carrillo, Memoria, p. 718; Vilallonga, The king, pp. 145–6; Fraga, En busca, p. 235.
Vilallonga, The king, p. 178.
Since 1984 the official Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas has conducted an annual study on the level of support enjoyed by Spain’s major political institutions. The proportion of those who agree with the statment that ‘the king, by stopping the coup of 23 February 1981, won the respect of Spanish democrats’ has never fallen below 80 per cent.
Vilallonga, The king, p. 112.
Author’s interview with Calvo Sotelo. Nevertheless, on one occasion the latter is said to have reprimanded the king for leaving the country without informing him. Fuente, El caballo cansado, p. 240.
ABC, 6 March 1981.
Author’s interview with Calvo Sotelo.
Author’s interviews with Oreja and Calvo Sotelo. Nourry, Un Rey, p. 309. A facsimile of this letter is reproduced in Andrew and Gordievsky, Instructions from the Centre, pp. 147–51.
ABC, 7 January 1982.
According to Juan Carlos, Milans del Bosch ‘was the victim of subtle poisoning of the mind more than anything else’. Vilallonga, The king, pp. 118, 123. When the general’s father died in February 1983, the king, Don Juan, Mondéjar and Fernández Campo all sent him their condolences. Their telegrams are reproduced in Merino and Segura, Jaque al Rey, p. 217. Juan Carlos described Armada as a traitor in the original (French) text of his conversations with Vilallonga, a reference that was removed from the English and Spanish versions.
Vilallonga, The king, p. 3. Il Messagero, 22 March 1980.
El País, 28 October 1982.
El País, 26 November 1982.
Peces-Barba, La elaboración, p. 16.
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© 1996 Charles Powell
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Powell, C. (1996). Consolidating — and Defending — Democracy. In: Juan Carlos of Spain. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24423-2_8
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