The Times - UK (2020-08-06)

the times | Thursday August 6 2020 2GM 31

Wo r l d

As Juan Carlos abruptly left Spain for a
secret location, leaving his compatriots
shocked and divided, he sent a text
message to friends, saying: “I’m not on
holiday and I’m not abandoning Spain,
this is just a parenthesis.”
According to El Pais some people, in-
cluding those in the government, are
not sure that it will be that easy for a
former king engulfed in scandal to re-
verse his voluntary exile, which was ex-
ecuted in the hope of limiting damage
to the Borbon brand.
The royal house has refused to com-
ment on Juan Carlos’s whereabouts

I’ll return to Spain, insists Juan Carlos

Spain
Pablo Sharrock Barcelona

since publishing on its website a letter

from the former king to his son and suc-

cessor, Felipe. In the letter he said that

he was leaving Spain because of “public

repercussions of certain episodes of my

past private life”.

That was diplomatic language to

summarise an encroaching scandal,

composed of allegations of bribes, gifts

of vast sums of Saudi money and off-

shore bank accounts. It threatens to

turn public sympathy against the mon-

archy and in favour of a return to the re-

public that existed before Spain’s civil

war and the long military dictatorship

of Francisco Franco.

The first signs of changing sentiment

have shown themselves in petitions to

remove Juan Carlos’s name from public

spaces and institutions.

The country continues to ask where

he has taken shelter from a storm for

which many think he can only blame

himself. Pedro Sánchez, the prime min-

ister, said that he had no information,

but he is said to have been party to the

negotiations before the departure

between the former king and his son.

The decision to leave was taken dur-

ing a meeting between King Felipe and

his father, after an agreement had been

reached through intermediaries. The

newspaper quoted a source who said

that “there was no good solution, only

less bad”.

Juan Carlos’s “red line” was the reten-

tion of the honorary life title of king,

granted by royal decree a few days

before his abdication in 2014, which was

prompted by previous scandals. The

choice of the country in which he would

reside was also discussed and “several

of the king emeritus’s preferred desti-

nations had to be ruled out”.

The balance of opinion in the Span-

ish media is that Juan Carlos is either in

the Dominican Republic or Portugal.

The Dominican authorities, however,

have said that they have no record of his

arrival on the Caribbean island, an im-

migration formality that would nor-

mally be completed even by royals ar-

riving by private jet.

It has been reported that Juan Carlos

is staying with his Cuban American

friend José Fanjul, a sugar baron who

lives in Palm Beach, Florida, and has an

apartment on Fifth Avenue, New York.

The number of signatures on an on-

line petition to change the name of

King Juan Carlos University in Madrid

were rising rapidly yesterday, and the

authorities in Gijon, on the north coast,

said they would change the name of its

Juan Carlos I Avenue because it be-

lieves the former king “does not repre-

sent the institutional, moral and demo-

cratic values of our society any more”.

Pinto, 12 miles from Madrid, has

approved changing the name of Juan

Carlos I park and taking down his

statue.

The parents of a nine-year-old girl are
considering suing her school after she
was punished for speaking Turkish in
the playground.
The dispute in Blumberg, a town on
the southern fringe of the Black Forest,
has raised questions about whether it is
discriminatory for teachers to insist
that their pupils talk German at all
times.
There has been much debate over the
extent to which it is acceptable to
impose German language and culture
on non-native speakers and people
with migrant backgrounds.
Angela Merkel and others have
argued that society should be moulded
by a Leitkultur, a guiding culture, of
European values such as rationality

Girl, 9, punished for speaking Turkish

and pluralism, and new citizens are

obliged to be able to speak the language

at least to a passable standard.

Yet recently the government’s own

anti-discrimination authority stated

that it was illegal for managers to

forbid their staff from speaking Turkish

or other languages during breaks

from work.

The girl in Blumberg, who has not

been named, was reported by other

pupils for “repeatedly” talking to a

friend in Turkish on the climbing

frame, according to the magazine Der

Spiegel.

Her primary school, where 43 per

cent of pupils have a “migrant back-

ground”, said that she had broken a rule

that German was the only language

permitted within its grounds.

The girl was asked to write a half-

page essay entitled “Why we speak

German at school”, but soon ran out of

arguments. “We are not allowed to

speak our mother tongues, so that we

can speak German better. That’s all I

know,” she wrote in partially broken

German.

Yalcin Tekinoglu, the lawyer repre-

senting her parents, said that he sus-

pected that the rule might discriminate

against some ethnic groups: “Would a

corresponding punishment be imposed

if pupils used English or Latin on school

premises outside lesson time?”

However, the school said that the

regulation was fair and applied equally

to all staff and pupils. “The children

come from 16 nations,” it said. “Against

this background it’s important for their

mutual understanding and for the

school’s ability to fulfil its educational

duties that the children and the teach-

ers speak a single language.”

Germany
Oliver Moody Berlin

Thousands of people were forced to flee

wildfires in the south of the country as

more than 1,000 hectares of land by the

Mediterranean was reduced to ashes.

Several hundred were taken to safety

by sea after seeking refuge on beaches

Two motorways were closed,

including the main stretch along the

French Riviera coast, as high winds

whipped the blaze. At least two

campsites and two holiday centres

were destroyed.

The fire destroyed homes and

campsites around Martigues, 20 miles

west of Marseilles, and forced about

2,700 people to flee. “It’s a catastrophe,”

Thousands flee wildfires

raging on French Riviera

Henri Cambessedes, the deputy mayor

of Martigues, said. “It’s a human drama

and an ecological drama.”

The fire started on Tuesday on dry

vegetation after the hottest first six

months of the year since records began

in France. Conditions were made worse

by winds of up to 55mph.

Gaby Charroux, 78, the mayor of

Martigues, said that fires had been

started simultaneously, suggesting the

work of arsonists. “This was without

doubt a criminal fire,” he said.

Luisa Amoura, a Parisian who was

staying in a mobile home, said that

people were panicking as they packed

their bags. She said: “We were evacuat-

ed and we climbed over the rocks to

take shelter on the beach.”

France

Adam Sage Paris

CARABINIERI TREVISO; MUSEO ANTONIO CANOVA

A

n Austrian

tourist who

snapped off

the toes of a

200-year-old

Italian sculpture while

sitting on it for a

photograph has come

clean after being caught

on CCTV (Tom Kington

writes).

David Huber, 50, from

Aistersheim, Austria,

was visiting the museum

in Possagno, Italy, which

specialises in the work

of the 18th-century

sculptor Antonio

Canova. The statue was

the plaster cast for a

marble version.

Hoisting himself up on

to the plinth of Canova’s

plaster model for the

final, marble statue of

Paolina Borghese, Mr

Huber copied her and

leant back to pose for a

fellow Austrian tourist.

Video studied by

police shows Mr Huber

standing up and

apparently noticing the

damage. He then leans

down to touch the

crumbled toes before

loitering in front of

them, blocking the view

as a woman tries to look

at the sculpture.

As the woman walks

on, Mr Huber also

saunters out of the

room. “It looks like he

got scared when he

realised what had

happened,” said Captain

Enrico Zampolli of the

Carabinieri, who studied

the video. “He didn’t

have the courage to tell

the guard.”

Thanks to post-Covid

rules on contact tracing,

the museum had

registered the details of

visitors and knew the

man was with a group of

Austrian tourists. When

they rang the woman

who had led the group,

she burst into tears and

confessed that he was

her husband. “She said

that they had read about

it in the Austrian papers

and were trying to ring

the museum,” Captain

Zampolli said.

Mr Huber also wrote a

contrite letter to

Vittorio Sgarbi, the

president of the

museum, claiming that

he did not immediately

realise the damage he

had caused.

“He said that everyone

in his village was giving

him horrible looks and

I suggested he could

offer to pay for the

restoration,” Mr Sgarbi

said.

Mr Sgarbi, who is a

hot-blooded MP and art

critic who loves arguing

on talk shows and was

recently carried out of

parliament by ushers for

refusing to wear a mask,

initially took offence,

stating: “Evidently he

mistook culture for a

sofa.”

Yesterday he told The

Times he was ready to

forgive Mr Huber. “The

next step is up to Italian

magistrates — I don’t

know if they will be so

forgiving,” he said.

Snapped! Culprit who

tried to tiptoe away

David Huber posed for the photograph then noticed that he had broken the statue’s toes. He failed to own up at the time but has since apologised

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