Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday that he was ‘surprised’ by certain claims made in the newly published memoirs of the exiled and disgraced former monarch, Juan Carlos I.
The 87-year-old former monarch’s 500-page autobiography revisits key moments in Spain’s modern history, while also addressing his well-documented extramarital affairs and financial scandals. ALSO READ: Spain’s disgraced ex-king’s memoir spills secrets on Franco, extramarital affairs & accidentally killing his brother.
One of the book’s most contentious sections includes affectionate references to Spain’s late dictator, General Francisco Franco, and the king’s reflections on his own role in the country’s transition to democracy. ALSO READ: Spanish government seeks to speed up the dissolution of Franco foundation.
In an interview with El País, Sánchez said: ‘I haven’t read the book yet. But I’ll also tell you that it won’t be one of my Christmas recommendations, given what I’ve seen.’
‘The current head of state [Felipe VI] is doing a commendable job,’ Sánchez went on to say.
Regarding the memoir of Juan Carlos, Sánchez said: ‘I’ll address some of the things that, well, have surprised me, about who did or didn’t bring about democracy. Democracy didn’t fall from the sky; it was the fruit of the struggle of the Spanish people, of ordinary citizens, of the pedestrians of history.’
Entitled Reconciliation, the memoir was released in French last week, with a Spanish edition due out on 3 December.
‘I gave freedom to the Spanish people by establishing democracy,’ Juan Carlos writes in the book.
Franco separated Juan Carlos from his parents at the age of 10 and raised him to be his successor. Two days after the dictator’s death in 1975, Juan Carlos was crowned king.
Although many Franco supporters expected him to preserve the regime’s legacy, the new monarch quickly initiated reforms that paved the way for Spain’s first democratic elections in 1977.
Juan Carlos abdicated in favour of his son, King Felipe VI, in 2014 and has lived in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates since 2020, after financial scandals and an extramarital affair came to light. ALSO READ: Former king Juan Carlos ‘pays €678k to tax office’ to avoid further action.
The memoirs have drawn criticism across Spain’s political spectrum.
Left-wing Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun denounced Juan Carlos’s positive comments about Franco on Thursday, calling it ‘sickening that nowadays someone would still dare to defend or justify the dictator’.
Former socialist (PSOE) Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also argued that the ex-king should have ‘tempered his words’ about Franco, whose regime was marked by executions and imprisonment of political dissidents.
Juan Carlos explained in Reconciliation that he decided to publish his autobiography because his life story ‘was being stolen from me’.
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Mi entrevista en @el_pais 👇🏻https://t.co/UcaXRhI3Ie
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) November 9, 2025
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