BP Holdings Tax Management

BP Holdings Tax Management
FT.com - The King of Spain could not have wished for a better occasion, or more loyal company, to mark his return to public life on Monday. Surrounded by the gilded splendour of the throne room in Madrid’s royal palace, Juan Carlos was presiding over the traditional New Year ceremony to honour Spain’s armed forces.

Facing him below the glittering chandeliers stood the country’s senior military officers, chests loaded with medals, along with the prime minister, cabinet members and army veterans. Amid the polished boots and purple sashes, there was not a republican in sight.

The ceremony ended as it does every year, with throaty cries of “Viva España!” led by the king himself. Yet there seemed nothing vivacious about the man at the centre of attention. Juan Carlos, 76, had arrived on crutches, shuffling uneasily, his face reddened and blotchy. He delivered his speech in halting tones, faltering over words and gasping for breath. It came as a stark reminder that the king is an old man. He had not appeared in public since a hip operation in November, the latest in a series of small but persistent health problems.

It was hard to look at Spain’s ageing monarch and not read more into his stumbling performance than the simple advance of time. Just a day before the ceremony, a Spanish paper had released a poll showing just how far Juan Carlos has fallen in the estimation of his subjects. Almost two-thirds said they wanted him to abdicate in favour of his son, Crown Prince Felipe; more than 40 per cent said they wanted Spain to be a republic.

On Tuesday, the royal house suffered a fresh humbling: Princess Cristina, the king’s younger daughter, was formally declared a suspect in a criminal probe into her husband’s alleged shady dealings. The investigating judge said she may have committed money laundering and tax fraud, and called her in to testify in court on March 8. Another bad day for the Bourbons looms...