Elephant-killing king of Spain resigns about corruption scandal

This video says about itself:

Elephant killer Trumps, King Juan Carlos of Spain

16 August 2012

The Spanish branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says it stripped the King of his position because his participation in the hunting safari was incompatible with the group’s goal of conserving endangered species.

From the Daily Beast, by The Royalist:

06.02.14

Shock As King Juan Carlos of Spain Abdicates

Battered by a scandal surrounding his daughter, the Spanish monarchy makes the ultimate gamble as the once-popular King Juan Carlos abdicates

King Juan Carlos of Spain is to abdicate, the country’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has announced.

The surprise announcement comes after a dramatic decline in the popularity of King Juan Carlos, 76, who has ruled since 1975.

First, the King was discovered to have traveled to Africa on a big game hunting expedition, shooting elephant in private game reserves, and the past year has seen wave after wave of negative publicity as his daughter, the Infanta Cristina, and her husband have been the focus of a long-running corruption investigation.

Juan Carlos’s son Prince Felipe, 45, will take over the throne.

Juan Carlos’s resignation as King marks an extraordinary gamble on the part of the Spanish monarchy. …

“His majesty, King Juan Carlos, has just communicated to me his will to give up the throne – I’m convinced this is the best moment for change,” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said this morning.

Juan Carlos is the second European monarch to abdicate in just over a year. In April last year, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands handed the throne to her son Prince Willem-Alexander after 33 years.

We assume Prince Charles is currently glued to the news feed.

The abdication has caught most observers by surprise, but it was predicted by Lars Hovbakke Sørensen, a lecturer in European royalty at the University of Copenhagen, when he spoke to the Daily Beast’s Nico Hines earlier this year. Lars Hovbakke Sørensen, a lecturer in European royalty at the University of Copenhagen.

“Cristina is seen as being close to the king; her problems are the king’s problems,” he told the Daily Beast. “I wouldn’t be surprised, if King Juan Carlos chooses to resign in the coming months, and hands over the throne to Crown Prince Felipe in an attempt to save the monarchy.”

MASSIVE anti-corruption raids have been carried out across Andalucia, the Canary Islands and Extremadura today, resulting in at least 30 arrests. Technicians, senior municipal officials and politicians were among those arrested, to add to the 51 arrested at the end of October: here.