Nh Alberto Aguilera

King Juan Carlos I is a perfect symbol of his country, both of Spain?s past and of its democratic and European future. Like most kings throughout Spanish history, Juan Carlos isn?t really Spanish; he descends from the French Bourbon monarchs who replaced the Austrian Habsburg dynasty on the Spanish throne in 1700. When he became king, two days after the death of Europe?s last fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, no one could guess what sort of a future Spain was facing. But Juan Carlos threw his inherited royal prestige behind a new democratic order for this country that had been only a bit player in post war Europe. In February 1981, the king faced down an attempted coup d?état that would have turned back the clock to a Franco-style dictatorship, and modern democratic Spain became more real, something Spaniards could believe in, something that might last. It has lasted, and King Juan Carlos is almost universally loved.