Spain: Toward a Change

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intellectuals among the Liberals, the Christian Democrats and other nonmonarchist groups are convinced that restoration of the king is the only sensible solution. The throne has no mass appeal among Spaniards; few have kind memories of Spain's ineffectual Borbon dynasty or long for the return of the golden carriages and the steel-hoofed clatter of hussars, the summer parties and the winter balls, the problems of precedence and the scramble for preference. But in the political vacuum that is bound to follow Franco, the monarchy might well be the only source of stability. Says one Catholic intellectual: "After 25 years of no politics, we must have something to hang on to." Even a onetime diehard Republican can agree: "Now I feel the monarchy is the least dangerous, the least violent solution for Spain."

Many groups in the Catholic Church are also deeply monarchist; so are the officers of the army, who are likely to be in complete command of Spain if Franco should suddenly die or be swept from office. Their role would then depend on the situation. In case of threatened civil strife, the army's determined leaders will undoubtedly form a military dictatorship to keep order. Otherwise, they will probably favor the monarchy.

Father or Son? Franco is likely to remain silent on the succession. He is playing a rather coy game with Don Juan and his family, dropping a hint here, a favor there, without committing himself.

There are a dozen possible royal relatives who might wear the crown, but the only serious alternative to Don Juan for the throne of Spain is his tall, handsome, newlywed son. Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon, 24. Fortnight ago, he interrupted his honeymoon with Princess Sophie of Greece to present his bride to Franco at a lunch at Madrid's Pardo palace. Most Spanish monarchists are convinced that Franco would prefer the younger, more pliable Juan Carlos, when he becomes eligible at age 30 under the succession law. The theory is that El Caudillo still resents Don Juan's two bitter public anti-Franco proclamations in 1945 and 1947. Dictator Franco on many occasions has been warm and deferential to Don Juan's son.

But Juan Carlos is a dutiful son. "I will never accept the crown during his lifetime." he has told friends repeatedly.

Moreover, Don Juan's own relations with Franco have warmed considerably—at least on the surface. Elaborate arrangements are now always made for refueling Don Juan's yacht in Spanish ports. Once, in Majorca, sailors from Spain's naval base were given liberty for the occasion of Don Juan's visit, and saluted the Saltillo, moving the Pretender to tears as he piloted the craft out to sea.

Into Exile. Don Juan often escapes the formality that is thrust upon him by his birth. At sea, he does his turn on deck with the crew; he normally wears faded dungarees and sneakers ashore in brief stops at foreign ports. At home in Estoril, he often drops in at bars for a beer or two, touring the tables to greet acquaintances. Now and then he goes to nightclubs, chats with friends until the small hours. He was not born to be a king, for he was only the third son of weak, dissolute Alfonso XIII. His eldest brother Don Alfonso was heir apparent.

But Alfonso inherited the family's dread hemophilia; after an auto accident in Florida in 1938, he bled to