The Suspect Princess: Is This Good for Spanish Democracy?

[Time]

Social research shows that middle children, overlooked between the eldest and youngest siblings, tend to feel left out, take longer to find their way in life but also are better at networking beyond the family. When Princess Cristina of Spain married, her wedding was noticeably less lavish than that of her older sister Elena. As a girl, she lost her position as second in line to the throne when her younger brother Felipe was born, and then fell again in the succession rankings when her siblings had children. She also took second place to her own husband, who the media routinely describe as a former Olympic handball player, rarely mentioning her status as an Olympic athlete on the Spanish sailing team in Seoul in 1988. But Cristina de Borbon no longer has to worry about her place in history. On April 3, the Infanta, as princesses are called in Spain, became the first Spanish royal ever called to appear as a suspect in court. When it comes to corruption, Spaniards are becoming difficult to shock. The so-called Gürtel case, which began in 2009 and is still ongoing, has seen dozens of leading officials in the region of Valencia charged with bribery and money laundering. Earlier this year, an investigation began into how the former treasurer for the now-ruling Popular Party managed to amass the estimated 38 million euros currently held in his Swiss bank accounts; that investigation, which alleges graft and tax evasion, threatens to reach the highest echelons of Spain's government. And, since February 2012, Cristina's husband, Iñaki Urdangarin and his business partner Diego Torres have been under judicial investigation for using their Nóos Institute, a purportedly not-for-profit organization that arranged sporting and tourism events, to embezzle some 8 million euros, mostly from government contracts won in part through Urdangarín's influence. (MORE: Spain's Corruption Scandals: The Crisis of the Royal Family) Nevertheless, the news that Cristina herself had been charged in the case came as a surprise, not only because the court had resisted doing so for so long, but

Via: TIME GlobalSpin