From 2011 onwards, the King's public image began to deteriorate significantly due to the Nóos corruption case, in which his daughter, Infanta Cristina de Borbón, was implicated.

[14][15] In April 2012, Juan Carlos suffered an accidental injury during a secret elephant-hunting trip in Botswana, which led to him being flown back home in a special aircraft.

[30] On 19 November 2012 and in the presence of Sanz Roldán, Juan Carlos informed Rafael Spottorno, the Private Secretary to the King [es], that he was considering the possibility of abdicating the throne.

[36] In any case, the greatest fear of "the fantastic four" (as they came to be known colloquially around the palace)[30] was that the political forces that were not in favor of the monarchy would "take advantage" of this law to "open the can of worms" about the form of the State.

Given the doubts and the diversity of opinions among them, the king's men (among whom was also General Domingo Martínez Palomo [es] as Head of the Planning and Coordination Cabinet) decided to ask for help from the former president of the Congress of Deputies, former minister of justice, and permanent advisor to the Council of State, Landelino Lavilla, one of the jurists who had contributed the most to establishing the legal foundation for the Transition.

[37] During the deliberations, another thorny issue arose concerning dynastic rights within the royal family itself, as those in favor of Felipe being the undisputed successor faced a dilemma: on one hand, it was essential to develop and approve the organic law required by the Constitution, which would make unavoidable the pending reform of that same article 57 to abolish the prevalence of men over women in the succession to the throne.

In the end, it was decided that it was not convenient to risk the proclamation of the future king to shield the previous one, but that the priority was to get Parliament to approve the abdication without any problems and then, in a second organic law, "go for the immunity.

"[40] In spite of the precautions, in February 2013, a source with access to the king's inner circle disclosed to writer and journalist José Antonio Zarzalejos [es] that the monarch, overwhelmed by his difficult family situation and by the damage done to his public reputation, as well as his own physical health, was considering renouncing the throne.

[53] But CNI director Félix Sanz Roldán flatly refused: "The king of Spain cannot, under any circumstance, not even after having abdicated, spend long periods of time in non-Western countries with a woman who is not his wife.

"[30] Thus, the King's longing started to fade due to the influence exerted by two of the people who had the most direct and open access to him: former President Felipe González and Sanz Roldán himself.

Both the Army military leadership itself, as well as the media and the general public, harbored doubts about the real physical capabilities of the monarch to reliably assume the responsibilities of the highest state institution.

"[42] The head of the Press and Communications Office of the Royal Household, Javier Ayuso, was so distressed—because, in addition, the ceremony was being broadcast live on radio and television throughout the country—that he suffered a fainting fit and had to be discreetly removed from the room.

[23][39] In the following days, it became known that the king, ignoring the warnings of his advisors about the transcendence and imminence of the event, had flown the previous week to London to celebrate his birthday with his "de facto family" (his lover, Corinna Larsen; his friend and Corinna's first husband Philip Adkins; and her son, Alexander),[60][61] as well as with Mohammed Eyad Kayali, representative of the Royal House of Saudi Arabia in Spain and a close friend of the king.

[23] Just one day after the speech, on Tuesday, 7 January 2014, the Infanta Cristina was charged by Judge José Castro Aragón [es],[14][63] but it was not until late February when Spottorno received the order to implement his decision.

The task force had grown: Spottorno, Ayuso, Lavilla, the former heads of the Royal Household, and the prince himself were joined by Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and Under Secretary of the Presidency Jaime Pérez Renovales [es].

Guided by the conviction of having rendered the best service to the Spanish people and having recovered physically and resumed my institutional activities, I have decided to put an end to my reign and abdicate the Crown of Spain, so that the Government and the Cortes Generales can give effect to the succession in accordance with the Constitution.He also stated that he had made the decision to abdicate the Crown in January 2014 after his 76th birthday and that, once he had recovered physically, he had decided to inform the prime minister.

Referring to the economic situation in Spain and the transformations and renovations demanded by society, he acknowledged that these should be carried out by the new generations and that his son, Felipe de Borbón, already had the necessary preparation and maturity to take over as head of state.

He will spend the rest of his days in a golden cage.In his statement, Rajoy had announced the convening of a special meeting of the Council of Ministers, which was indeed held on 3 June, and which approved the submission to the Cortes Generales of the draft organic law, thus making effective the abdication.

The present Law shall enter into force at the moment of its publication in the Official State Gazette.Moreover, the Council of Ministers approved an Agreement requesting an urgent procedure for its processing in Parliament.

"[87] To try and convince the most reluctant deputies and regional leaders to vote "yes", Rubalcaba appealed to the "constitutional consensus", which he placed above even the foundational "deep republican roots" of the party.

[84] Even in spite of his attempts, many parliamentarians continued to align themselves with the theories of other left-wing parties and insisted that the final approval of the law could be conditioned to an either prior or simultaneous public consultation.

[97] The sanction and promulgation of Organic Law 3/2014 of 18 June, by which the abdication of King Juan Carlos I was made effective, took place during a solemn ceremony at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

[98] The ceremony, although short, was witnessed by a considerable number of guests, among whom were the presidents of the high state institutions, members of government, former prime ministers, and some notable political figures.

As a noteworthy anecdote, it is worth mentioning that, when he had finished signing the document, King Juan Carlos addressed his son, to whom he gave his seat as a symbol of succession.

[1] His eldest daughter, Leonor de Borbón, became Princess of Asturias and heiress presumptive and, at the age of eight, the youngest direct heir in Europe as the first in the line of succession to the throne.

[101] Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría had had the idea of including the new legal status of the outgoing king within a law that was already in force, in order to be able to move it forward without problems.

Although it only received the support of the People's Party,[103][104] the law was approved and arrived in time for the paternity lawsuits by Albert Solà[105][106] and Ingrid Sartiau[107][108]—which had been filed in various ordinary Spanish courts a while back—to be shelved definitively.

[110] Political party Podemos, which had just had remarkable success in the European Parliament elections, issued a communiqué calling for a referendum to decide on the model of State, a pact that would definitively recognize Spaniards "as citizens and not as subjects."

[126][127][128] Thus, The New York Times reported on the petition that a Spanish broker living in London, Helena Fernández de Bobadilla, had made through a signature collection platform.

[142] A poll conducted by TNS Demoscopia for Antena 3 reveals that two out of three citizens believe that the abdication has taken place at an opportune moment, and 60% support the proclamation of Prince Felipe as the new king.