King Juan Carlos downsizes

King Juan Carlos’s most prized possession has been put on sale. The 74-year-old monarch’s vessel Fortuna, which was gifted to him by around 30 business associates more than a decade ago, as a way of thanking the monarch for promoting the Balearic Island, was marked with a 20% reduction.

“The recent reduction in price is part of our strategy to first locate the vessel in the market, then indicate to potential buyers the seller’s wish to negotiate.Hence the reduction from €10m to €8.25m.” A royal palace official said: “It’s the fact that we need a very special kind of buyer and there aren’t so many of those out there.”

As Spain’s monarchy has seen its popularity plummet in recent months, the royal palace announced that “for austerity reasons,” and given the cost of refuelling the yacht averages €20,000 to the taxpayers, the king would hand over to the government one of his most famous possessions. Understandably the group of businessmen responsible for gifting the yacht dismissed the option to keep the yacht themselves.

King Juan Carlos I had come under scathing criticism in 2012, when news of his €10,000-a-day hunting safari in Botswana got out, while Spain’s economy struggled amid the economic crisis in the Eurozone. News of the safari caused uproar and the king was forced to make an unprecedented apology acknowledging he had made a mistake. Following the heavy criticism by the Spanish public, the royal family announced that King Juan Carlos and his heir Prince Felipe would take a pay cut of 7 percent.

The spacious bullet proof yacht was stored in the king’s summer palace in Mallorca. The 68 knots top speed yacht comes equipped with a flat screen television, a music system, high-end kitchen, and a highly-specialised crew to maintain the top of the range equipment. The royal family’s exclusive yacht played host to several famous faces, including Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Prince William.

The king rarely speaks out on current affairs in Spain, with recent polls showing public confidence in the royal family has reached an all time low. But the time is so austere and the growing distrust of some of the Spanish institutions, especially the resentment mounted over thecuts to social budgets by the government and high unemployment rate, has forced the King to give up the aluminium yacht.

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