Strategic Culture Foundation (Opinion)
9 October 2017
It is difficult to believe that in the 21st
century there are still kings, queens, and other potentates, it is even
harder to fathom such hereditary leeches on the taxpayers’ balance
sheets calling any political shots.
King
Farouk I, the last crowned king of Egypt, is famously known for saying,
“In a few years there will be only five kings in the world — the King
of England and the four kings in a pack of cards.” Farouk, who lost his
throne after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, was slightly off in his
prediction. Having died in 1965, Farouk would not live to see the
abolishment of the monarchies of Iran, Libya, Greece, Afghanistan,
Ethiopia, Burundi, Laos, Sikkim, and Nepal. Nor would Farouk see the
re-establishment of the Spanish monarchy after the death of Spain’s
fascist dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
King Farouk did have a valid prognostication. Although it is difficult to believe that in the 21st
century there are still kings, queens, and other potentates in the
world, it is even harder to fathom such hereditary leeches on the
taxpayers’ balance sheets calling any political shots. However, that is
exactly what Spain experienced recently when King Felipe VI weighed in
on the results of a popular referendum in Catalonia that overwhelmingly
backed independence for the region.
The
president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, denounced the King,
declaring, "The king has adopted the (national) government's position
and policies which have been disastrous with regard to Catalonia. He is
deliberately ignoring millions of Catalans." In a televised address to
the nation, Felipe railed, "With their irresponsible behavior they [the
Catalans] put their own region and all of Spain at risk." However,
Puigdemont countered the King by stating the Spanish monarchy refuses to
even negotiate with Catalonia, "I will repeat it as many times as
necessary: dialogue and agreement are part of the political culture of
our people. However, the state has not given any positive answer to
those offers."
Spanish
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy totally rejected Catalonia's offer of
dialogue. Rajoy even accused the Catalonian government of blackmail.
King
Felipe bears a lot of family baggage in coming to the support of Rajoy
in his confrontation with the Catalonian government and people. It was
the ideological forefather of Rajoy's People's Party, Generalissimo
Franco, who placed Felipe's father, Juan Carlos I, in the position of
Spanish regent, or "Prince of Spain." Although Spain's monarchy had been
abolished in 1931 by the Second Spanish Republic, Franco restored the
kingdom after defeating the republic’s loyalist forces in the Spanish
Civil War. Franco could have not declared victory in 1939 had it not
been for the assistance rendered by his two allies, Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini. Franco made Juan Carlos his heir apparent in 1969 only
after the "prince" swore allegiance to Franco's fascist Falange
movement.
In
choosing Juan Carlos as his heir, Franco skipped over the more
legitimate Juan de Borbón -- the Count of Barcelona and son of King
Alfonso XIII, the nation's last king before the republic was established
in 1951. Juan de Borbón was seen by Franco as "too liberal," a
euphemism for the Count having too much sympathy for Catalonia, the
capital of which is Barcelona.
Juan
Carlos was never very popular among the regions, particularly Catalonia
and the Basque region, which suffered the most under Franco’s iron
fist. There is a widely-held belief in Spain that in 1956 Juan Carlos
shot to death on purpose his younger brother, Prince Alfonso, at the
Borbón family's estate in Portugal, on purpose. Although Juan Carlos and
royal aides claimed the shooting death was an accident, it was revealed
that the revolver used by Juan Carlos was a personal gift from Franco.
The only two people in the room when the shot was fired were Juan Carlos
and Alfonso, the latter suffering a fatal gunshot wound in the
forehead. The Spanish embassy in Lisbon crafted a press release that
rivals any of the fake news seen today:
"Whilst
His Highness Prince Alfonso was cleaning a revolver last evening with
his brother, a shot was fired hitting his forehead and killing him in a
few minutes. The accident took place at 20.30 hours, after the Infante's
[Alfonso] return from the Maundy Thursday religious service, during
which he had received holy communion."
The
gunshot incident in 1956 was brought home to Spaniards in 2012, after a
photograph surfaced of Juan Carlos standing in front of a dead elephant
he shot in Botswana. The incident followed by a few days another in
which Juan Carlos’s 13-year old grandson, Froilán Marichalar, shot
himself in the foot while hunting in Spain. Catalans, as well as
Basques, find the gun-wielding Borbóns as repulsive as the French
revolutionaries found the Spanish royal family’s French ancestors, King
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, both of whom were separated at the neck
by guillotines during the French Revolution.
During
the Spanish Civil War, Franco's fascists committed horrific acts of
genocide against the Catalans and Basques, punishment meted out for
their support for the Second Republic. During the first decade of
Franco's rule, Catalans and Basques were systematically massacred in the
"White Terror," which saw as many as 400,000 opponents of the fascists
fall victim to Franco's feared Guardia Civil. Franco proscribed the
Catalan language, political parties, trade unions, and newspapers;
abolished Catalonia's instruments of autonomy, including the Generalitat
of Catalonia, the Catalonian regional government; and wiped out all
vestiges of Catalan culture. It is with these historical underpinnings
that Catalonia today seeks to part ways with a Spanish government
steeped in fascist traditions and a blind eye toward the past genocide
and national aspirations of the Catalan people.
As
if to remind Catalans of the White Terror, Rajoy's government
dispatched helmeted and armed Guardia Civil members to forcibly shut
down independence referendum polling places across Catalonia, beat
voters and protesters, arrest Catalonian government officials, and clash
with Catalonian firefighters trying to protect Catalans attempting to
vote. The Rajoy regime has threatened to charge with sedition Major
Josep Lluis Trapero, the chief of the Catalonian police force, the
Mossos d’Esquadra, for failing to take the side of the Guardia Civil and
other Spanish state security forces against his own people. Trapero
faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Meanwhile
King Felipe, anxious to protect his “realm,” has served as a symbol for
the stamping out of Catalonian nationhood. The Spanish royal family
stands as a testament to the nepotistic corruption that shadows many
monarchies. In 2016, Felipe’s sister, Princess Cristina, stood trial for
business fraud. Although the princess was found not guilty, her
businessman husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, was found guilty and sentenced to
over six years in prison. In July, Prime Minister Rajoy, who has ranted
and raved about the “illegality” of Catalonia’s independence
referendum, became the first sitting Spanish head of government to take
the witness stand in a criminal trial involving slush fund payments to
his People’s Party.
European
integrationist supporters of monarchies in the European Parliament,
including the sell-out Greens, as well as Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian
chairman of the "liberal" ALDE European parliamentary group, insisted
that Catalonia must remain, at all costs, a part of Spain. These
so-called "liberal" and "centrist" parties made common cause with the
proto-fascist Rajoy, as well as the fascist-inclined Donald Trump, who
recently insisted on Spain remaining united while standing next to Rajoy
at a White House press conference.
The
arrogant and impetuous Verhofstadt, a major opponent of the Brexit
referendum in the United Kingdom, is also a fierce opponent of the
secession from Belgium of Flanders as an independent republic.
Verhofstadt served as Belgian prime minister from 1999 to 2008, during a
time when Belgian King Albert II was embroiled in the “Dutroux Affair”
-- a festering scandal involving pedophiles at the highest levels of the
government, church, and business. In 2013, Albert suddenly abdicated
the throne in favor of his son Philippe.
Philippe
has demonstrated that he, like his father, will do anything to save his
throne and two constituent parts of his realm – the Flemish-speaking
Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia --that wish to leave Belgium
altogether. Neither region wants to have anything to do with the Belgian
monarchy, with many Wallonians wishing to join the French Republic.
With
his monarchy under constant criticism, Philippe has found time to
criticize an online advertisement by the American fast food restaurant
chain Burger King that coincides with the restaurant’s entrance into the
Belgian market. The advertisement asks Belgians, “Two Kings. One crown.
Who will rule? Vote now... “For those clicking on the image of King
Philippe, they are then asked, “Are you sure..? He won’t cook you
fries.” The royal palace demanded Burger King pull down the
advertisement, claiming the King’s image is not to be used for
commercial purposes. However, that restriction apparently does not apply
to the King’s brother, Prince Laurent, who has been conducting private
business meetings with foreign leaders, including officers of the
Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and
the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo – a former Belgian
colony -- without the government’s permission. The Flemish republican
nationalists have as much antipathy toward the Belgian royal grifters as
do the Catalonian republican separatists for the Spanish royals.
Felipe
of Spain, Philippe of Belgium, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands --
who insists on retaining as his personal fiefdoms Dutch colonies in
Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba; Elizabeth
II of the United Kingdom -- who quietly campaigned against independence
for Scotland and republic status for Jamaica and Barbados; Mohammed VI
of Morocco -- who brutally oversees the repression of the stolen nation
of Western Sahara; and the jihadist-supporting monarchs of Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi have seen their era come and go.
Norway’s
Crown Prince Haakon was discovered in 2016 to be renting out apartments
on his royal estate that were deemed unsafe for residents. His wife,
Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has had past associations with drug dealers.
In 2010, it was revealed that Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf’s youthful
past included nights at strip clubs owned by notorious gangsters and
wild orgies with models. Denmark’s Prince Consort, Henrik, recently said
he does not want to be buried next to his wife, Queen Margrethe II,
because he wanted to be named “King Consort.” Henrik, another
disgustingly pampered royal parasite, complained, “My wife does not give
me the respect a normal wife must give her spouse.” This writer’s
grandmother, a Danish wartime Resistance fighter, journalist, and Danish
Communist Party (DKP) executive, is fondly remembered by her colleagues
as calling the Danish King the “highest paid unemployed person in
Denmark.” The same can be said for most of the world’s royals, not just
those in Denmark.
Apart
for his prediction that the British monarchy would continue, King
Farouk was correct: the only kings, queens, and knaves in the world
today should be those found in every deck of playing cards.
Source: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/10/09/kings-and-queens-consigned-decks-playing-cards.html
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