SPAIN: The Enigma of Juan Carlos

Of all the uncertainties and imponderables that lie ahead for Spain, none is more baffling than the personage of Prince Juan Carlos Alphonso Victór Maria de Borbón y Borbón, grandson of King Alphonso XIII of Spain and great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria of England. He was chosen by Franco in 1969 to ascend the throne after his death, in the hope that the royal scion would assure an orderly succession and maintain the stern, one-party system that the dictator had created. Whether the enigmatic Prince, 36, can meet these hopes is as problematical as the currents of suppressed rage and rebellion...

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