Despite the fact that monarchies are found throughout the world, they often seem to be a uniquely European phenomenon and a distinctly American obsession;: as Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington (and descendent of British nobles) aptly sums up in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, “‘Oh, my God, you’re the son of a duke!’ I’m not an anti-royalist, but who gives a shit?”
Well, Spain, for a start.
On June 11, the Spanish parliament swiftly passed a law that allows Crown Prince Felipe to succeed his father, King Juan Carlos I, on the throne. Only nine days before, the monarch announced his intention to abdicate following a reign of nearly forty years, allegedly to pass on power to “a new, decidedly younger generation”. The king’s action comes on the heels of a spurt of European abdications, following then-Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (who abdicated in April 2013) and Belgium’s Albert II (who left the throne in July 2013). However, in Spain, this younger generation is increasingly critical of the monarchy, and is divided from years of economic hardship and struggles for independence, especially in the northwestern region of Catalonia. Felipe, at 46 years old, will be forced to juggle these forces at a time when European monarchies, despite their prestige, face the threat of utter irrelevance.
As Ishaan Tharoor of The Washington Post writes, “Europe’s dozen surviving monarchies are mostly fusty, toothless institutions. European royals ski and spawn gaudy weddings; they are not scepter-waving potentates in any real sense.” This assessment is largely true: in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and (to a large extent) Spain, the monarch is largely a figurehead. (In several smaller European nations, such as Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, and Monaco, the monarch plays a larger role in government.) In Spain, though, Juan Carlos was instrumental in the transition to democracy after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco: although Franco had hand-picked the royal to take control of the state, Juan Carlos spearheaded the rewriting of the constitution and rejected a 1981 military coup attempt.
Indeed, in the tumultuous years of the late 1970s and 80s, the king proved an important unifying figure in Spanish politics, overseeing several decades of stability. His abdication, on the other hand, comes at a time when he is no longer quite so effective as a stabilizing presence in Spain. First, there is the persistent problem of the Catalonian independence movement: over half of the inhabitants of the region support independence, and the regional government continues pushing for a November referendum despite opposition from the national parliament in Madrid.
Second, the country has suffered from years of economic woes and high unemployment (the current unemployment rate is hovering around 26 percent). In April 2012, when unemployment was at 23 percent and the youth unemployment rate almost reached 50 percent, the king was discovered injured on an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana that cost double his nation’s average salary, provoking waves of criticism and a drop in popularity. To make matters worse, his daughter, Princess Cristina, and her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, are mired in a corruption scandal that has illuminated their shady business dealings and extravagant spending habits.
At a time when the monarchy could have unified Spaniards, it is now more unpopular and divisive than it has ever been. Juan Carlos’ approval rating has dropped to 41 percent, and the approval rating for the monarchy as a whole has been halved, from 75 percent in 1994 to 37 percent this year. Yet despite public disapproval and the rise of anti-monarchy political factions, the monarchist camp remains sizable, especially in Parliament, where the vote to allow the quick succession of Juan Carlos by his son was pushed through by conservatives despite calls for a referendum on the monarchy itself. These are persistent and pernicious divisions, and they are unlikely to be fully resolved when Felipe is crowned (although polls show that he is more popular than his father). Even though surveys showed that Spaniards viewed the king’s decision to abdicate positively and support for the monarchy has increased, it has only reached 55 percent. In other words, the country is still split over the royal family.
But the strength of a royal family lies in its ability to unify: kings and queens ideally serve as the figureheads for the abstract “nation” even when political divisions and regional disputes appear to challenge that concept. In fact, many of the remaining monarchies of the world are situated in countries with sizable internal divides and local independence movements: in addition to Spain, the list includes Belgium, Thailand, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. If the throne itself becomes a source of division, then the monarch may have no role at all.
Image credit: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images Europe, via Zimbio; New York Times