After almost 40 years on the throne, King Juan Carlos of Spain announced his abdication in a surprise move on Monday. The 76-year-old monarch’s son Felipe will succeed him on the throne. While his father’s main achievement was overseeing the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy, Felipe must now protect Spain’s unity, commentators write.
Spanish monarch relinquishes throne
EurActiv.com
Spain’s King Juan Carlos said on Monday he would abdicate in favor of his more popular son Prince Felipe, in an apparent bid to revive the scandal-hit monarchy at a time of economic hardship and growing discontent with the wider political elite
Kicking off a week-long trip to Europe, President Barack Obama announced in Warsaw on Wednesday that in view of the Ukraine crisis the US wants to set aside a billion dollars to boost its troops in Eastern Europe. The plans are an appropriate expression of solidarity with the Nato states, commentators say, while also criticising the passivity of the European allies
After 39 years on the throne, Juan Carlos de Borbón has announced his abdication of the Spanish Crown in favor of his son, Felipe. But with leftist, republican and independence movements brewing, could Felipe be the last King of Spain?
Spain’s Poisoned ChaliceFP Passport by James Badcock
The Spanish monarchy is in big trouble, and not even a young, handsome new king may be able to do anything about it.
The King is dead! Long live the giddy baby elephant of the people!
The first sign I saw of what could be a turning point in Spanish history, seven minutes after the news was announced by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, was a picture of a baby elephant in a fountain. Aged 76, Spain’s King Juan Carlos I is to abdicate the throne ? the bathetic end to an increasingly unpopular reign, made more notorious during Spain’s grim austerity years by photos of him going elephant shooting in Botswana.
Counterterrorist and counter-radicalisation policies not only have the potential to undermine the democratic principles, institutions, and processes they seek to preserve but also to produce unintended consequences.
Germany’s Spiegel (magazine and online news agency), has been vocal in its criticism of David Cameron for
MAIN FOCUS: Power struggle over Commission presidency | 02/06/2014
euro|topics
According to media reports on Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to bring forward the referendum on exiting the EU should Jean-Claude Juncker become European Commission president. The EU should finally start questioning the UK’s membership, some commentators demand. Others argue that Cameron’s reform proposals should be the subject of an open debate.
The European Commission’s social affairs and employment policy recommendations to EU countries have been criticised as inconsistent and a “missed opportunity.”
The European Commission asked the Bulgarian government to suspend work on Gazprom’s South Stream gas pipeline,
European elections: Ten highlights
BBC News | Europe
Highs and lows of the 2014 European elections
The left-right divide makes a comeback in the European elections
open Democracy News Analysis – by Jonathan White
For two decades after the Cold War, observers of European democracy talked of the end of Left-Right politics. This week?s Euro-Parliamentary election results are one piece of evidence to suggest something different has occurred.
Europe and Anti-Europe
Project Syndicate by Harold James
The European Parliament election made it clear that there are now two Europes: one in which the logic of integration is deeply embedded in the sociopolitical order
Citizens are not stupid: looking at the European Elections from the outside in
open Democracy News Analysis – by Shimri Zameret
Seen by an outsider, the European Elections actually looked more like a success for Europe and transnational democracy – not a failure. Let me tell you why.
Seen by an outsider, the European Elections actually looked more like a success for Europe and transnational democracy – not a failure. Let me tell you why.
The most unexpected outcome of the rise of the leftist outsiders ?Podemos?Public Affairs 2.0 by James Stevens
King Felipe VI: Called to be a Symbol
In a turn of events that few would have predicted a fortnight ago, King Juan Carlos I of Spain (76) formally announced today his decision to put an end to his 39-year reign and abdicate in favour of Crown Prince Felipe (46). The decision follows three years of accelerated decline in the popularity of the Monarchy caused by family scandals and a series of major missteps by the King himself. The succession comes one week after the irruption into the Spanish political scene of Podemos (We Can), the leftist grassroots movement that obtained a stunning five seats and 1.2 million votes in the European Parliament elections on 25 May.
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