"When Spain's King Juan Carlos fell over and broke his hip while on an elephant hunt with a girlfriend in Botswana in 2012, he probably thought that Spaniards would accept this as a minor gaffe after a lifetime of public service. The monarch had, after all, weathered numerous scandals, including a string of extramarital affairs and investigations into his family's financial affairs, during the previous 37 years of his reign."
"It was the height of the eurozone crisis and there was outrage that Juan Carlos was on what was reported to be a free hunting trip while people endured the poverty, mass unemployment and terror of an economy in freefall. Within two years, the king had abdicated and was passing the crown to his son, Felipe VI."
"In June 2018, his son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin began a sentence of five years and 10 months at a jail in Avila for embezzlement, fraud, prevarication, influence peddling and tax dodging. Two years later, in August 2020, Juan Carlos set off to self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi, amid a scandal over a $100m payment into his secret Swiss bank accounts by Saudi Arabia's royal family."
King Juan Carlos of Spain faced mounting public scrutiny after a 2012 elephant hunting accident in Botswana coincided with Spain's severe economic crisis, prompting widespread outrage over his lavish lifestyle amid national poverty and unemployment. Though he abdicated in 2014, passing the crown to his son Felipe VI, scandals continued accumulating. His son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin was imprisoned for embezzlement and fraud in 2018. In 2020, Juan Carlos fled to Abu Dhabi following revelations of a $100 million payment from Saudi Arabia's royal family deposited into his secret Swiss bank accounts, allegedly connected to a high-speed railway contract negotiation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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