The 23F papers: Queen Elizabeth II congratulates King Juan Carlos I on the outcome of the coup

Eduardo González Among the documents declassified by the Government regarding the attempted coup of February 23, 1981, is a message from Queen Elizabeth II congratulating King Juan Carlos I and “all those who intervened so successfully to protect the constitutional order.” “I was deeply shocked to learn of the action taken against the Spanish Parliament by an armed group,” read the message sent by Queen Elizabeth II to King Juan Carlos I, reproduced on February 25, 1981 (two days after the attempted coup) by the Press and Information Service of the British Embassy in Madrid. “All of us in Great Britain were relieved to learn of the final outcome,” it continued. “I send my congratulations to Your Majesty and to all those who intervened so successfully to protect the constitutional order,” the text concluded. Juan Carlos I responded to Queen Elizabeth II on March 5, according to a telegram sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Spanish Embassy in London for delivery to the Queen of the United Kingdom: “I earnestly thank Your Majesty for the personal sentiments you express to me in your message, as well as your congratulations on the failure of the recent attempt to seriously alter our constitutional order. I am certain that Your Majesty faithfully reflects the feelings of the entire British people.” The same note from the British Embassy mentioned above included another message from the Speaker of the House of Commons, Labour's George Thomas, to the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies, Landelino Lavilla: “I was deeply shocked to learn of the disgrace committed against the Congress of Deputies and against you personally as its Speaker,” the message began. “You and the MPs have endured a rigorous ordeal; your conduct has earned the respect of all parliamentarians in the democratic world. I convey to you the congratulations of the House of Commons on the happy ending to an event that has worried the friends of Spanish democracy,” he concluded. Another of the declassified documents is a telegram from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Spanish Embassy in Bonn (then the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany) in which the minister, José Pedro Pérez Llorca, asked the ambassador to convey a message from the King to the German president, Karl Carstens, to express his “deepest” gratitude for his “cordial feelings of sympathy and support regarding the thwarted attack against the constitutional legality of Spain that took place on the 23rd.” The message from President Carstens to which Juan Carlos I was responding is not attached. Furthermore, the German Embassy in Spain attached a message on February 25 from the German Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, to José Pedro Pérez Llorca, in which he shared with him “the joy and relief he must feel at this moment following the bloodless conclusion of the attempted coup.” “The young Spanish democracy has overcome a difficult test,” it continued. “His Majesty the King, the people, and the State institutions have united in defending the constitutional order,” it went on. “The new government of your country can begin to work with absolute confidence,” the message concluded. In the letter accompanying the message, the then German Ambassador to Madrid, Lothar Lhan, also conveyed to the minister “his satisfaction with the happy outcome of the serious incident that occurred.” The declassified documents add only one other message of the same type from Europe, specifically a letter from the then Chancellor of Austria, the Social Democrat Bruno Kreisky (who during his term exercised significant international leadership in favor of North-South dialogue, nuclear disarmament, and détente between the United States and the USSR) to King Juan Carlos: “Your Majesty, the friendly relations of many years (…) lead me to consider it appropriate to express my great admiration for your actions during recent events,” it began. “Through your message and your historic leadership, you have become one of the great figures in the history of our time, and all the democracies of Europe owe you a very special debt of gratitude. As one of the oldest democratic statesmen in Europe, I take the liberty of expressing this gratitude to you in a very special way,” the letter concluded, dated February 25, 1981.

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