Franco’s Successor May Be Monarch

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30218, 24 August 1963, Page 8

Franco’s Successor May Be Monarch

(By a Reuter Correspondent)

MADRID. News that Princess Sophia of Greece, the 24-year-old wife of Prince Juan Carlos of Bourbon, is expecting her first baby in November, has brought the succession to General Franco to the fore again. Many people, both Royalist sympathisers and political circles which share General Franco’s desire to restore the monarchy hope the child will be a boy, thereby ensuring

the continuation of tire direct line of descent from Spain’s last king. Don Alfonso XIII. The present heir to the throne is 49-year-old Don Juan of Bourbon who lives in exile at Estoril, in Portugal. His heir is 25-year-old Prince Juan Carlos who lives in Madrid with his wife, Sophia. Next in line is 27-year-old Prince Alfonso Jaime, a cousin of Juan Carlos, who is studying finance in a Madrid bank. - . Some of General Franco’s supporters think he wants to restore a “modern monarchy” and that he might favour the youthful Prince Juan Carlos, who has been educated in Spain, rather than the father, who has been in

exile for 32 years. Princess Sophia, who may one day be Queen of Spain, has gone back to school again. Each day at 10 o’clock a teacher arrives to give her a two-hour lesson in Spanish history. Her husband, Prince Juan Carlos has, in a way, never left school. His training to be king goes on incessantly. “I have brought my son up to be a King,” his father told a visitor proudly some time ago. After having studied at the army, navy and air force academies, and followed courses at Madrid University for two years, he is being instructed in the main projects for Spain’s future. His mentor in economics is Mr Rodo, a leading figure of

a Catholic organisation active in the Government. He is secretary-general of the development plan aimed at reorganising Spain’s economy on modem lines.

When they are not very busy learning to be the future King and Queen of Spain Juan Carlos and Sophia live a quiet life at their home set in the Valazquez countryside, near General Franco’s residence of El Pardo, nine miles west of Madrid. General Franco is said to be fond of Juan Carlos. "I love him as if he were my own son” he told Don Juan on one of their occasional meetings near the Portuguese frontier. The general and the young prince shoot and fish together. The residence of the young royal couple stands in rolling scrub country over which deer wander and partridge swoop.

The broad-shouldered, athletic young prince gallops on horseback over the countryside, while his young wife devotes much of her time to playing the piano. Restaurant Visits

General Franco believes in those who are at the top or who are preparing to be at the top, keeping at a distance from the busy round of diplomatic and society functions. Accordingly the royal couple entertain little, but they like to go quietly to eat on their own in a Madrid restaurant, near the Pardo Museum. Whenever the young couple enter or leave a restaurant, Spanish society folk eating there immediately stand up. Prince Juan Carlos usually drives his own Mercedes car, and many a Monarchist head is shaken over his fast driving, which raises fears that a car accident may end all chance of a restoration. Monarchist circles have pressed General Franco to

recognise Prince Juan Carlos as the heir of his father and give him the title of Prince of Asturias and an establishment in keeping with the position ot a Crown Prince. Making Haste Slowly Although he is now 70 General Franco has a favourite phrase which, translated literally says: “You cannot bum up your stages.” It can be taken as meaning “more haste, less speed.” Many of General Franco's closest supporters make their dislike for a Royal restoration clear—a fact which leads the Generalissimo to probe his way forward with great care. Prince Juan Carlos is, in fact, treated as if he were a future head of state, but General Franco prefers to leave the situation fluid and to allow Spain to become accustomed to seeking the Royal couple visiting hospitals and official centres, attending concerts and moving about Madrid and Spain generally. Observers regarded it as a hopeful sign for the political future when Spain’s leading Monarchist daily, "ABC,” edited by Torcuato Luca de Tena, grandson of the founder, recently conferred an important literary prize on Emilio Romero, the editor of the labour union organ, “Pueblo.” “Pueblo” has socialist and republican tendencies. “ABC” is conservative and monarchist. So the gesture of “ABC” was regarded as helping to smooth the path towards the political changes which must inevitably take place in Spain as General Franco grows older.