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That lesson is not lost on Spain's King Juan Carlos, as he attempts to market the monarchy in a riven land. When he was named Francisco Franco's successor-to-be in 1969, the young prince spoke a vow worthy of Don Quixote: "My pulse will not tremble when it comes to do what is necessary for the future of Spain." True to his word, in the five months since the generalissimo's death, the novice King, a direct descendant of France's House of Bourbon, has performed with courage and dignity.
Returning to the throne from which his grandfather, Alfonso XIII, was ousted in 1931, Juan Carlos at 38 has the dual task of dismantling nearly four decades of dictatorship while attempting to establish his own legitimacy as chief of state. Unlike his Bourbon ancestors, of whom Talleyrand said, "They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing," Juan Carlos proved a retentive student during his years as monarch-in-waiting.
The sports-loving King (golf, sailing, karate) was criticized for his seeming lethargy during the first three months of his reign, when he seldom ventured far from his modest, mauve stucco Zarzuela palace near Madrid. "What can the man do?" shrugged a Communist leader. "He is the lackey of the system." Replied a high government official: "Patience. Patience. The post-Franco era has barely begun." Then, after ugly rioting in industrial Barcelona, the capital of Catalonian separatism, the palace announced that the royal couple would make a number of tours to the disparate regions—starting with Catalonia.
With the exception of Barcelona, where their reception was cool, Juan Carlos and his handsome, tough-minded Queen Sofia, of the Greek royal family, were greeted by tumultuous, even ecstatic crowds. The King impressed the throngs at Montserrat by addressing them in the Catalan language. Many villages and small towns they visited were enveloped in a fiesta atmosphere. Crude posters of support sprouted in the dusty plazas, though some signs, as in Jerez de la Frontera, aired complaints: THE COTTON INDUSTRY is DYING. Carefully, Juan Carlos responded: "On such a short visit I am not in a position to examine all your problems, but we take note of them." Dismayed at first by the prospect of pressing the flesh, Juan Carlos was soon chuckling at the experience—and he does not chuckle often. As the 18-hour-a-day tour wore on, the royal smile grew wider.
The lanky, handsome King seeks to project his role as moderator of contending factions. As he told a vast crowd in Seville, "The monarchy is for all and not for any single group or party. It can ensure liberty for everyone who respects others, the unity of the nation amid the diversity of its peoples, the equality of its citizens and their access to the economic and spiritual benefits that our young and dynamic society can create."
Though the day-to-day running of the country remains in the hands of Premier Carlos Arias Navarro, an old Franco trusty, and Interior Minister Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Juan Carlos has made an effort to dissociate himself from Franco's "political baggage," as they say in Spain. The Communists reject his regime as one "imposed by Franco from the tomb," but claim that they would cooperate with Juan Carlos' father Don Juan if the latter were restored. For his part,