King Felipe renounces Juan Carlos I's inheritance

The Rex Emeritus receives €200,000 a year before tax, since the 82-year-old father of the current monarch has continued with as much Royal duty as his health and age allow since he abdicated in favour of his son in June 2014.

HRH Felipe's main reasons for doing so are the result of the anti-corruption prosecution's having opened an inquiry into an alleged donation of €65 million from a foundation based in Panamá, linked to Juan Carlos I, to an account in the name of German former aristocrat Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.

A Countess by marriage, but no longer so since her divorce in 2005, the businesswoman now known by her maiden name of Larsen is, or was, a close friend of the retired King of Spain; although speculation has been rife in the media for many years that there was more to it than 'mere' friendship, this has never been confirmed.

In October, the Swiss prosecution required Spain's National Court to provide audio footage of a meeting between Corinna Larsen and former commissioner José Villarejo in London in 2015 in connection with Juan Carlos I's accounts in the central European country.

Villarejo had been remanded in custody in November 2017 for spying on blackmail.

Swiss prosecutors believed that US$100 million paid by Saudi Arabia's King Abdul Aziz al-Saud ended up in an account in Panamá in the name of the Lucum Foundation via the Middle Eastern monarch's accountants in Switzerland, Dante Canónica and Arturo Fasana, whom they believed to be 'front men' working for Juan Carlos I.

Spain's anti-corruption prosecution had launched a probe into possible back-handers for awarding the job of building the high-speed AVE rail line to the holy city of Mecca to a consortium of Spanish companies, back in 2011.

It was then suspected Juan Carlos I had transferred €65m of these US$100m to Corinna Larsen back in September 2012, at around the time the retired King suffered public revulsion from the Spanish public after being photographed hunting elephants in Botswana.

According to Corinna's lawyer, the money was 'an unsolicited gift' sent as a 'donation for her and her son', because King Juan Carlos had 'become very fond of them both'.

The US$100m that ended up in the Panamá-based Lucum Foundation effectively belongs to Juan Carlos I, as beneficiary of the entity – meaning the present King Felipe VI would inherit the funds upon the death of his father.

Spain's Zarzuela Palace confirmed that Felipe VI had been named future beneficiary of the Foundation when Juan Carlos I eventually passed away, although it said it had no documentary evidence of this.

Likewise, Felipe VI's and Queen Letizia's daughters, Princess Leonor, 14 and the Infanta Sofía, who will be 13 in May, would also, eventually, become beneficiaries of the Foundation.

But the Zarzuela Palace confirmed that even if this was the case, any designation or benefit from it that the girls could derive would cease immediately.

This is now definite, since King Felipe has waived his claim to any of his father's future inheritance whatsoever, meaning neither he nor, later, his daughters, will receive any of King Juan Carlos' assets.

Although nothing has been proven and the inquiry made conclude that no unlawful financial activity involving Juan Carlos I had ever taken place, his son, the reigning monarch, considers it his public responsibility to refuse to have any part of it or take any benefit from it just in case.

The Royal Household stresses that Felipe VI had never been given any information about the Lucum Foundation by his father, nor about the Zagatka Foundation, owned by Álvaro de Orléans-Borbón, Juan Carlos I's cousin.

Felipe VI has also agreed with his father that the latter will no longer receive his annual payment as a Royal - €194,232 before tax, which also has to cover his expenses, such as staff wages.

Also, his outgoings will be less now in any case, since he formally gave up his public duties as a Royal in June last year – even though he still works in a private capacity for charities of which he is patron.

Despite his stipend being stopped, Juan Carlos I will still retain his condition as a Royal, and will still go by the title of 'King'.

Part of Juan Carlos I's decision to abdicate in June 2014 was to 'clean up' the image of the Royal family: his connection with Corinna Larsen, his wife Queen Sofía's autobiography claiming he had had affairs with up to 1,500 women, two paternity suits so far – neither of which has been admitted by the courts – and the pictures of him hunting elephants had led to the institution's falling drastically from popularity in a society where, at the time, nobody under the age of 40 would have remembered King Juan Carlos' crucial rôle in returning the country to democracy and freedom after dictator General Franco's death.

He decided it was time for some new, young blood to take over from him as head of State, and his son Felipe – who married Letizia Ortiz, a TV news reporter in 2004 – and his wife and daughters were far more popular with the younger generations of adults.

Since then, clamours to end the monarchy and become a republic have still been in existence, but far less widespread and passionate.