€300K Salary, Swiss Bank Accounts and Millions in donations Wasn’t Enough for Spain’s Former King

Swiss Bank Accounts, Millions in donations and 300,000 euros of salary were not enough for the previous king.

The emeritus kings, Juan Carlos I and Sofía of Greece, have enjoyed public salaries in the last decade that exceed three million euros. The collection of these amounts – the amount of which the Royal Household only began to make public from 2011, after the outbreak of the Nóos case, the cause of corruption that led Iñaki Urdagarín to jail – responds to the constitutional mandate that establishes that “the Rey receives a global amount from the State Budgets to support his Family and House, and distributes it freely “.

Throughout his last years on the throne, Juan Carlos I received an official salary of around 300,000 euros per year. This amount was reduced by just 30% after his abdication when he began to receive around 200,000 euros per year. Last March Felipe VI tried to quell the echo of the increasingly well-founded suspicions that his father benefited from millionaire commissions from Saudi Arabia by withdrawing that allocation.

Three months later, the Royal Family recognized that the money that Juan Carlos I had pending to collect during that year –161,034 euros– was not returned to the Treasury, but instead went to increase a contingency fund destined to deal with ‘unforeseen events’. The money stayed in the Royal Household and yet, the queen emerita continues to receive a public salary, which in 2020 was 111,854.88 euros.

The amount of money that Juan Carlos I has received, inside and outside the throne, has been well above what other high authorities of the State have received. For example, the president of the Constitutional Court, the highest-paid public office, will receive 157,576.58 euros next year, according to the latest Budget bill- a salary almost double of the President of the Government, who will earn 85,608.72 euros in 2021.

Despite this, these remunerations have apparently not been enough to cover the exorbitant way of life of Juan Carlos de Borbón, as shown by different journalistic and judicial investigations. Spain’s Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office has been investigating the expenses of Juan Carlos I and other relatives the results of which will be known soon.


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Written by

Tony Winterburn

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