The reasons for the prestige of the Monarchy in Spain and the reasons to continue supporting it

Today the Princess of Asturias, Leonor de Borbón, turns 18 and reaches the age of majority. And today she has also sworn to the Constitution.

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Leonor could already be Queen of Spain

This act of oath has great importance, because from this moment, in the event of the King's absence, Leonor could already serve as Queen of Spain. As was predictable, the enemies of Spain and the Monarchy (both agree to a large extent) have tried to break up this solemn day, trying to take away from the Princess of Asturias the prominence that belongs to her on this day . I refuse to fall into their game and give them attention they don't deserve. They have every other day of the year to bother us with their nonsense. Today is not your day. We put up with them enough the rest of the year.

10 of the 20 freest countries in the world are monarchies

It should be noted that the Monarchy enjoys considerable prestige in Spain. It is one of the best-rated institutions in the country, something that surely explains much of the animosity of certain politicians (the political class, in fact, is among the worst-rated institutions in Spain). Spain is a parliamentary monarchy, a form of government in which it coincides with some of the most free and democratic countries in the world, such as Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Luxembourg, Japan and the United Kingdom, and that is only citing those that appear among the 20 most countries free from the Economist Group's Democracy Index (Spain appears in 22nd place, despite all the efforts of the Sánchez government to erode our democracy and our freedoms).

The belief that having a republic makes a country more free and democratic is a big mistake. Among the 20 most free countries in the world there are 10 monarchies, and of the 20 least free countries, 18 are republics (the only two monarchies of those 20 are Islamic countries: Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan). The debate between Monarchy and Republic is one of the biggest political traps there is, because those who promote it the most (the extreme left, particularly) never say what kind of republic they want. Coincidentally, the republics linked to the Spanish far-left (Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and Russia) are all dictatorships and are among the least free countries in the world.

The reasons for the success of the Monarchy in Spain

Among the reasons for the prestige of the Spanish Monarchy we could find practically the same as in the case of other countries that share this form of State:

• The Monarchy is a traditional institution that gives continuity to the Nation and represents its unity. That is why Article 56 of the Constitution, which talks about the Crown, begins by stating: "The King is the Head of State, symbol of its unity and permanence." Many people do not realize the importance of this, but the permanence over time of an institution is a success for Spain as a Nation.
• Spain's experience with the Monarchy has been much better than with the Republic. With all the defects that the monarchical institution may have (after all, there is no perfect form of State), the greatest institutional failures of our country came from the hand of two ephemeral republics that ended in harsh civil confrontations provoked by the republicans themselves. The left-wing tries to whitewash the last republic by presenting it as the panacea of democracy, but it is a lie: the left itself saw to it that the Republic ended up becoming a de facto socialist dictatorship. When the far-left calls for a Republic, what they want is something like Cuba or Venezuela, let no one be fooled.
• The Crown is an institution that is outside political conflicts. Its very nature in a parliamentary Monarchy makes the Crown an institution that "arbitrates and moderates the regular functioning of institutions", as the Constitution points out, but without entering into the political debate. It is a much more transversal institution than the Republican presidencies, which always fall to a politician from a certain party. Justice itself, which should also be outside of political conflicts, is seeing its independence curtailed by those who reject the Monarchy, something that does not favor our democracy at all.
• The Royal Family has demonstrated incomparably greater preparation, dedication and commitment to Spain than any politician. This is a compelling reason. The Kings of Spain are people who train for decades to occupy their position, including training as officers in the Armed Forces, assuming duties that they fulfill much better than politicians. The alternative to this would be to have as presidents of the republic people like Pedro Sánchez, Zapatero, Pablo Iglesias, Irene Montero or Ione Belarra, who have exhibited a degree of sectarianism, a contempt for our institutions and a political radicalism that seems to have no other purpose than to sow discord and endanger coexistence between Spaniards.

The desire to transplant models from other countries to Spain

Someone may argue that there are republics that do work. I'm not going to deny it. The United States, Finland, Germany, Poland or Switzerland are examples of republics that function well and where there are surely not many who miss having a Monarchy. But when it comes to considering these models assimilable by Spain, some overlook an important detail: Spain is not the United States, Finland, Germany, Poland or Switzerland. It does not have the past, nor the customs or traditions of those countries. Spain has not experienced as turbulent a history as some of them, largely thanks to the continuity and unity that its Monarchy gave it.

Let us remember, for example, that Poland was a Monarchy when it literally disappeared from the map, subjected to a partition by the powers that surrounded it. When Poland reappeared, there was no longer a King. However, today the White Eagle of Poland continues to hold the country's royal crown, and its kings of yesteryear remain a part of its history that Poles admire. Trying to transplant a form of State from another country, which is the result of a very specific history, to another, is as absurd as believing that we Spaniards would be better if we were all Slavic, Oriental or Germanic.

The causes of the hatred of the far-left and separatism towards the Monarchy

Furthermore, at this point it is more than evident that when the extreme left or separatism attack the Spanish Monarchy they do not do it for love of democracy. This love cannot be attributed to those who admire dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela, to those who relate to terrorist regimes like Iran and to those who tried to destroy our democracy through a separatist coup in 2017.

If they hate the Monarchy it is precisely because it represents one of the greatest obstacles to their aspirations: the imposition of a dictatorship in the style of Cuba or Venezuela, in the case of the extreme left, and the breaking of the unity of Spain, in the case of the separatists. These two reasons are already more than enough for anyone who loves Spain and democracy to feel called to support the Monarchy.

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Photo: Ministerio de Defensa.