This summer will mark the fortieth anniversary of the first time Prince Juan Carlos assumed, provisionally, the powers of Head of State. His father, Don Juan de Borbón, who at that time was the depositary of the rights of the royal family, was then in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The Full Professor Antonio Fontán went to visit him and they talked about what could happen if Franco died. Don Juan decided to call his son, Juan Carlos, to find out what he thought: "Was it all right that he was not in Spain", he told him. The father followed the committee.

The following year, after Franco's death, Don Juan called Fontán in Paris and asked him to transmit a message to his son, the King, as soon as possible, directly and without witnesses: that he - Don Juan - had decided to abdicate in his favor, transferring to him the historical rights of which he was the depositary and the head of the dynasty. He wanted to keep the degree scroll of Count of Barcelona. Almost two years later, this transfer of rights was publicly made official.

It is possible that these memories have crossed the mind of King Juan Carlos I lately. The history of royal families has the virtue of turning the general into the particular, the collective into staff, and thus turning the concrete into a symbol.

Therein lies a good part of their political function: by turning a woman or a man into a symbol of a people, they manifest, first and foremost, a desire for unity. That can be considered the first achievement of Juan Carlos I and the Crown in these years: facing the challenge of keeping Spaniards united around a common project . His knowledge of the deep divisions that had broken the country left little doubt as to the magnitude of the task. He tackled it by piloting a risky political project at a time of severe economic crisis. And it was a success. The old monarchical symbol, not without difficulties, fulfilled its function.

In close connection with that meaning, King Juan Carlos I embodied a generation. Even the people he chose as his most direct collaborators to implement his political project showed it. It has been said many times of Adolfo Suárez and it can be said of many others: they were the generation of reconciliation, they fought for it, and they achieved it.

The effort had to be made from all sides, as always when reconciliation is pursued, and the merit of Juan Carlos I was to ensure that no significant sector felt excluded from the task.

Finally, as with all human beings, time left its marks: its achievements and weaknesses are there for us to study. Spain normalized its position in the international concert, appeared as model of peaceful transition, and lived years of strong economic development . But money does not only provide solutions to poverty, it can also be used for corruption, and the politicians of democracy were no strangers to these temptations, nor were the members of the Royal House. And so, the scourges of the time of democracy have been experienced in the Royal family.

The holder of the Crown has now decided that it is time for the relay. Certainly the biological time suggests so, but also the political moment. The monarchical symbol must demonstrate that it can render a new service in a new time. The challenge is no less intense now than it was forty years ago and affects us all, I would say more than then. A democracy, a constitutional monarchy is a question of citizenship before it is a question of royalty.