Two meetings in 24 hours

Public meetings between the king and queen have usually been few and far between since Don Juan Carlos moved to Abu Dhabi in August 2020, but chance (and commitments) have meant that we have witnessed two in just 24 hours. Felipe VI and Letizia They attended this Monday the funeral of Alejandro Fernández de Araoz, who also attended Juan Carlos I They arrived separately and dressed in strict mourning, the same image they left on Sunday at the farewell to Juan Gómez-Acebo.

They have gathered inside the temple, where they have coincided with other well-known faces who also wanted to say their last goodbye to the lawyer, former Governor of the Bank of Spain during the Second Republic and husband of Isabel Gómez-Acebo, sister of the husband of the Infanta Pilar, such as the mayor The Duke and Duchess of Huescar, Fernando Fitz-James and Sofia Palazuelo, Blanca Suelves and Xandra Falcó.

This time, however, we have not seen Queen Sofia or her daughters, who did accompany the emeritus on Sunday. Aided by his cane and his trusted man, the father of Felipe VI arrived from the Four Seasons Hotel, where he has been staying these days, and was warmly welcomed at the doors of the parish of San Francisco de Borja.

A Foundation in Abu Dhabi

Just a few hours earlier, a new controversy had put the emeritus in the headlines: Don Juan Carlos I has created a foundation in Abu Dhabi to centralize his fortune abroad and leave it as an inheritance to the infantas Elena and Cristina when he dies. He is the one who presides over the new foundation and his daughters, the infantas, occupy seats on the board of trustees, according to the announcement. The Confidentialciting sources close to the monarch. Several financiers close to Juan Carlos I participate in the management of the company.

The legislation of the United Arab Emirates makes foundations an ideal vehicle for the transfer of assets in the event of death: zero taxation, secrecy surrounding the rules and statutes that allow the entire assets of the company to be controlled automatically at the same time that the testator dies, in addition to preserving the identities of the beneficiaries.

In the eyes of the public, this foundation is a beautiful and charitable thing: it highlights the positive side of Juan Carlos I’s reign, especially his role in the Transition, and it finances cultural and educational projects linked to the figure of the king whom Franco left in charge of a dictatorship and whom he guided towards a Constitutional Monarchy. However, the journalist José María Olmo affirms that Juan Carlos I also wants to use the new corporate instrument to recover the assets that he still controls outside Spain and, subsequently, transfer them to the princesses.