Majority of Spaniards disapprove of king

SPAIN: A slim majority of Spaniards disapprove of King Juan Carlos, an opinion poll published Sunday showed, after scandals over an elephant-hunting trip and a corruption probe centred on his son-in-law.

The poll published in centre-left newspaper El Pais showed 53 percent disapproved of the way the 75-year-old head of state is carrying out his functions, against 42 percent who approved.

That gave him an overall approval-versus-disapproval rating of -11, compared to +21 in December, a lower rating than the one received by tax inspectors or lawyers and the first time that he has received a negative rating.

Disapproval of the monarch, who is recovering from surgery in March for slipped discs, his seventh operation in three years, was highest among left-wing voters and people aged 18 to 34.

Among those in this age group, the king's approval-versus-disapproval rating stood at -41. The poll was carried out by the Metroscopia polling firm for the newspaper in March, before a judge on Wednesday named the king's youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, as a suspect in a corruption case.

The case, which was opened at the end of 2011, is centred on allegations of embezzlement and influence peddling against Cristina's husband, former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin, and his former business partner Diego Torres. The pair are suspected of overbilling regional governments to stage sports and tourism events, and then syphoning off money to the non-profit Noos Institute, which Urdangarin chaired from 2004 to 2006.

The king won wide respect in Spain for helping guide it through a political transition after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

But his image suffered last year due to the corruption scandal and an expensive elephant-hunting holiday which he took in Botswana while Spain was struggling through a steep recession and a record jobless rate of 26 percent.

The king broke his hip during the trip and had to be flown home for medical care.

He issued an unprecedented public apology after his return but the affair fuelled calls from some quarters that he should abdicate in favour of his 45-year-old-son, Prince Felipe, the youngest of his three children with Queen Sofia.

The hunting trip -- reportedly subsidised and organised by Syrian construction magnate Mohamed Eyad Kayali -- threw the spotlight on the royal family's deluxe lifestyle and opaque fortune.

It also drew attention to the king's friendship with Corrina Sayn-Wittgenstein, a blonde German aristocrat who is 28 years his junior, after it emerged that she accompanied him on the trip to Botswana.

AFP