Spain's Younger Voters Would Prefer to Get Rid of Monarchy

The future of Spain's monarchy was cast into doubt yesterday by an opinion poll showing the country's younger voters would rather live in a republic.

The poll in El Mundo newspaper - on the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of the monarchy after the dictator Francisco Franco died - suggested almost a quarter of Spaniards considered themselves republicans. A 50% increase in declared republicans over five years was the result of a surge in the number of 18 to 29-year-olds who preferred to scrap the monarchy, the poll showed. Declining support among young people could spell future trouble for what has previously been considered a model, modern European monarchy.

Nearly four out of 10 young voters defined themselves as republicans - slightly more than those who said they were monarchists. It was the first time in 30 years that polls had produced such a result. The result was not so worrying for King Juan Carlos - who maintains the respect of even diehard republicans after helping usher in democracy following Franco's death - as it was for his heirs.

One historian suggested the 67-year-old king should choose a suitable moment to abdicate in favour of Crown Prince Felipe to maintain his own reputation and set his son off to a good start. "Spain has experimented with republics twice in the past century and a half. There is no guarantee that such a thing might not happen again," Felipe Fernández-Armesto wrote in El Mundo.

Both the king and his son are still popular as individuals, with only 4% of Spaniards holding a poor opinion of the former and 6% disliking the latter. The decline in popularity of the monarchy comes despite self-censorship on royal matters by Spain's press, which contrasts with its eagerness to report scandals involving other European royalty.