A New King With Clout

The latest European crowned head to make a bicentennial visit to the U.S. is, in political terms, probably the most interesting. Accompanied by his attractive Greek-born wife Sofia, Spain's King Juan Carlos I, 38, is scheduled to arrive this week for a four-day ceremonial visit to Washington and New York City. Americans will be primarily interested in appraising the inexperienced monarch who is trying to guide Spain out of Franco's reactionary past into a progressive future, without disrupting the country and without antagonizing its emerging political factions, right and left.

Slowly but inexorably, the old order seems to be giving way under Juan Carlos. Last week the 565-member Cortes (Parliament) embarked on the first genuine post-Franco reform by voting to lift a ban on political meetings. The government of aging (67) Premier Carlos Arias Navarro also acknowledged that negotiations were under way for Juan Carlos' father, Don Juan, to renounce his claim to the throne. The traditional Victory Day, May 30, which celebrates the defeat of the Republican side in the civil war, was discreetly renamed Armed Forces Day. In another token of change, portraits of Franco are being removed from government offices.

Free-For-AII. In political Madrid there is a sense of great expectation on the part of left, right and center politicians alike. Reports TIME Madrid Bureau Chief Gavin Scott: "The old guard of political hacks who owed their positions to the Generalissimo lament his absence, of course. But even within the regime he left behind there is a prevailing opinion that Spain needs to press forward politically--and the process is becoming an exciting free-for-all."

The government's next reform will be a national yes/no referendum in October on proposals to create a bicameral legislature. The present rubber-stamp Cortes and National Council will be replaced in 1977 by a 300-member Lower House, elected by universal suffrage (long demanded by leftists). There will also be a 285-member Senate with "equal powers." Candidates for the Upper House will be put forward by an entrenched local power system that is the legacy of the Franco era: provincial authorities, government-sponsored labor unions and associations of businessmen. Forty will be members for life. The King will still have sole authority to choose a Premier, but his choice must come from three names submitted to him by the right-wing-dominated regency council, said Interior Minister Manuel Fraga Iribarne, 53, who planned the constitutional changes.

The Spanish opposition, which includes 200 or more separate parties and splinter groups, is not overly impressed with the constitutional reforms. For one thing, critics note that the equal powers of the reactionary Upper House apparently involve the authority to block any legislation proposed by the popularly elected assembly. For another, they wonder about how much power the opposition parties will really have while even anti-Communists believe that the Communist Party--which might command only 10% of the votes--should be legalized, although the government argues that it is "too soon." "This 'constitutional reform' is nothing more than a cynical joke," says a Madrid-based member of the 126-person Communist Central Committee. Joaquin Ruiz-Gimenez, a distinguished constitutional lawyer, complains that the government is simply handing down reforms without letting other parties participate in the process. Yet even this, he does admit, is a beginning.

Despite the dyspepsia of the opposition, it is a fact that for the first time politicians not directly connected to the old Franco apparatus are out of the closet. The press is lively and aggressive. There are still depressing examples of repression in Spain (a claimed 700 political prisoners, 291 of them accused of terrorism). Basques, Catalans and striking workers carrying on illegal political demonstrations can expect head bashings from Spain's 65,000-man civil guard and 40,000 armed police, who are under Fraga's control. "If the opposition wants to make trouble in the streets," warns Fraga, "I will give it back to them." Generally, however, the police crackdown seems to be selective, and members of the so-called Bunker, a term Spaniards borrowed from English to denote Franco-era hardliners, are clearly on the run.

As he presides over Spain's political emergence, the astute, engaging Juan

Carlos steadily gains self-confidence. In Franco's waning days, the royal heir designate led a listless life sailing off Mallorca, skiing in Granada, toying with his Nikons and snipping ceremonial ribbons. Today he is at the center of the political vortex and shows a clear and subtle understanding of the conflicting currents. The stream of ministerial cars passing through the gates of Zarzuela Palace, his residence northwest of Madrid, indicates that the King has clout where it counts. Significantly, Juan Carlos is using that clout to receive not only ministers but opposition leaders like Ruiz-Gimenez and 35-year-old Socialist Leader Felipe Gonzalez, who have not been heard before.

Beguiling Blonde. At the outset of his reign, Juan Carlos' somewhat stiff public countenance led many Spaniards to think that he might not be the right man for their chief of state. But in three excursions to Catalonia, Andalusia and Asturias, he sparked rousing receptions and warmed to the affection of the crowds. Juan Carlos is helped immeasurably by beguiling blonde Queen Sofia, 37, who along with her royal demeanor has also shown surprising political skill. In the Catalan town of Manresa, Sofia dismissed the royal automobiles and led the King on a flesh-pressing 300-yard march up the town's main street. In Asturias, the royal couple put on miners' attire and spent 90 minutes inspecting a coal mine. Last week, in an extraordinary act for a Spanish Queen, Sofia smashed a 500-year-old tradition by attending Jewish religious services in a Madrid synagogue.

Juan Carlos' public pronouncements have been few and bland. Nonetheless, there are encouraging signs that the King may be a good deal less cautious than either Fraga or Arias, a timid holdover from Franco's days who is probably too venerable and rigid to be the kind of Premier that Juan Carlos needs at such a critical time. The King apparently recognizes that if Spain swings too far left too swiftly, there would be no returning, but in no sense is he acting as a brake on change in Spanish life. On the contrary, he evinces a certain impatience with the immobility of the old guard. Under the present constitution, he has more power than he has chosen to exercise. In the name of preserving a modern monarchy during the turbulent months ahead, he is bound to exercise more.

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