A HISTORIAN has claimed that Spain’s former monarch Juan Carlos privately told British diplomats that his country did not really want Gibraltar.
Charles Powell made the claim in an interview with the online news portal El Independiente to promote his new book about the Emeritus King and Spain’s foreign policy.
Powell said the monarch’s comments were made in 1983, when Spain’s main foreign-policy objective was to get membership of the European Community.
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He claimed that Juan Carlos said the matter of Gibraltar was used to bolster up a domestic audience.
The ex-monarch said in an interview with Powell carried out in Abu Dhabi that ‘we had to please public opinion, but without ever jeopardising the fundamental objective, which is entry into the community’.
Powell continued that Madrid avoided any action that could damage relations with the UK.
His information was gleaned from British diplomatic archives as well as contemporary interviews which show the Gibraltar issue was handled differently in public and in private.
Powell’s book also refers to British concerns after the 1981 failed coup attempt when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ordered extra defensive measures in Gibraltar.
After the restoration of democracy to Spain following the death of General Franco in 1975, the historian says that the role of King Juan Carlos was crucial in building bridges abroad.
Charles Powell said: “Juan Carlos was able to successfully embody and project the idea of a new and democratic Spain beyond its borders, making the most of the Crown’s capacity for symbolic representation.”
“Juan Carlos got along better with left-wing presidents than with right-wing ones, mainly due to the fact that the former lacked monarchical convictions when they came to office, so the monarch had to make a special effort to win them over, which was not necessary with the latter.” he added.
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