spain's king abdicates

Today, at short past ten, Mariano Rajoy, the president of Spain, appeard on an official communicate telling Spain that the king Juan Carlos the 1st had decided to abdicate and pass the crown to Felipe, his heir.

The news surprised Spain and the spanish whilst everyone was working on their jobs. By midday the breaking new had already spreaded around the country and the world. At that time, Juan Carlos have made another communicate, then talking himself about the reasons of his decision and encouraging the spanish to trust in Felipe. According to his speech, it seems that he considers he's ruled the country for long enough and it is time for his son to sit on the throne. He's also spoken about his health and the difficult moment Spain is living (the deep crisis it is suffering).

The new have instantly become trending topic on twitter and lots of politicians, economists but also citzens have given their opinion and point of view about it. It is good to remember that Juan Carlos is the third king to abdicate within a year in Europe (the Belgian and the Dutch abdicated last year). The politic tensions Spain's living with the Catalan process have become more sensible around the country, where a lot of citzens (not only catalans and euskeras) have expressed their wish to transform Spain into a republic.

As I see it, a King was very useful some time ago (...perhaps the last century?) but now, that democracy has reached its maturity, a crown has nothing to do in a country but spending its money...