King Juan Carlos Leaves Royal Spanish Life and Heads to the Dominican Republic

He was a popular figure for decades, playing a key role in the democratic transition from the Franco dictatorship which ruled Spain from 1939-1975.

'Painful gesture'

An inquiry opened in Spain in September 2018 following the publication of records attributed to German businesswoman Corinna Larsen, a former mistress of Juan Carlos.

She claimed he had received a commission when a consortium of Spanish companies were awarded a high-speed railway contract to link the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Larsen told Swiss investigators he had transferred to her nearly 65 million euros in the Bahamas, "not to get rid of the money", but "out of gratitude and out of love", according to El Pais daily.

Swiss media reported last March that Juan Carlos was paid $100 million into a Panamanian foundation's Swiss bank account by late Saudi King Abdullah in 2008.

The same month, The Daily Telegraph in Britain reported that Felipe VI was also a beneficiary of the foundation.

The king withdrew from his father an annual royal allowance of nearly 200,000 euros and renounced his inheritance "to preserve the exemplariness of the crown".

Juan Carlos's shock announcement took most Spaniards by surprise and it dominated headlines and radio and television talk shows on Tuesday.

El Mundo called it a "painful gesture in defense of the Crown" in an editorial published on its front page while ABC headlined that Juan Carlos had "left Spain to not damage his son's reign".

(Writer: David Silva)

Source: http://u.afp.com/3XSG