The survey that Cluster17 has conducted for Agenda Pública offers a valuable snapshot of Spaniards’ attitudes toward their form of the State. The numbers deserve a careful reading, because they dispel several clichés and raise questions that we do not usually encounter in public debate.
The headline figure is emphatic: 62.2% of respondents opt to keep the monarchy, while 36.2% prefer a republic. It is worth pausing here before moving forward. In any European democracy, the fact that almost two out of every three citizens back their form of State constitutes a very solid base of legitimacy. Not extraordinary, but clearly majority. The parliamentary monarchies in our region, from Denmark to the Netherlands, operate with similar or, in some cases, higher levels of support. Placing Spain in that comparative frame, something we have been doing at REMCO for years, helps avoid the bias of treating the Spanish monarchy as an isolated and supposedly anomalous case.
“In any European democracy, the fact that almost two out of every three citizens back their form of State constitutes a very solid base of legitimacy”
Now, however, that 62.2% is not a homogeneous bloc, and this is where the survey becomes interesting. 28.7% want a Crown with greater political weight. 26% would maintain the current powers. A mere 7.5% would reduce it to a strictly ceremonial role. The fracture does not occur only between monarchists and republicans, but within the monarchist camp itself. That nearly three in ten Spaniards wishing to broaden the Crown’s competences reveals a demand for institutionalism that conventional political analysis typically fails to capture.
Esa demanda, sin embargo, debería interpretarse con cautela. Expanding the functions of the head of state in a parliamentary monarchy is not a minor adjustment, but a change to the constitutional balance that would require a deep debate about which specific functions would be broadened, with which control mechanisms, and under what conditions of democratic legitimacy. More than a defined program, which no survey can offer, this is an expression of varied feelings or attitudes. And we can also ask ourselves, given a concrete and coherent reform program, how many of them could be carried out in the current climate of extreme polarization, when what is needed here is broad consensus.
A paradox between the monarch and the preferred system
One of the most interesting contributions of the study is what we could call the person/institution paradox. Among PSOE voters, 51.9% prefer a republic, but 63.3% view Felipe VI positively. Vox voters show the exact opposite: 85.7% back the monarchy, while only 39.9% approve of the current monarch’s performance. Socialists appreciate the king but question the system. Vox supporters defend the system but are wary of the king. This double dissociation shows that the debate about Spain’s form of the State does not move along a simple dimension of approval or rejection. The link between ideology, institution, and person is far more complex than slogans allow to capture.
“Socialists appreciate the king but question the system. Vox supporters defend the system but are wary of the king”
The territorial dimension is another relevant issue. In Catalonia, 53.2% and in the Basque Country 58.4% opt for the republic, while these figures fall to 24.3% in Andalusia and 24.5% in Madrid. The correlation between republicanism and peripheral nationalism is evident. It is not so much an objection to the functioning of the monarchy as a questioning of the broader political framework of which the Crown is a part. This distinction matters, because the solutions to each type of disaffection are very different.
On the other hand, there is an interesting generational aspect in the study, which dispels the myth that young people are automatically republicans. The 25–34 age group is the one that most strongly calls for a monarchy with more power (39.8%), while the republicans peak in the 35–49 bracket (41.7%). The data suggest that the relationship between age and institutional preference does not follow a straight downward line, but a curve that fluctuates and likely reflects distinct generational experiences: the economic crisis, the 15-M movement, the housing crisis, labor market precarity, the abdication of Juan Carlos I, or the emergence of new parties.
What is missing in the survey? Two things, above all. The first is a question about the real knowledge citizens have of how the parliamentary monarchy operates. At REMCO we have repeatedly found that many people who voice opinions about the monarchy are unaware of basic aspects of its institutional role, its costs compared with other European heads of state, or its contribution to institutional stability. Measuring that information gap would be as revealing as measuring preferences.
The second gap is the comparative perspective. Asking Spaniards whether they prefer a monarchy or a republic without offering them a frame of reference on how both systems work in Europe is like asking for an opinion about a menu without showing the dishes.
“Asking Spaniards whether they prefer a monarchy or a republic without providing a frame of reference for how both systems operate in Europe is like asking for an opinion on a menu without showing the dishes”
The data from Cluster17 confirm that the Spanish monarchy enjoys majority backing, not unanimous, permeated by ideological, territorial, and generational tensions that deserve serious attention. The challenge is not to celebrate the favorable figures nor to dramatize the unfavorable ones, but to raise the quality of the debate about monarchies. This requires more rigorous research and less emotional trench warfare: arguments, comparative data, and analyses that allow citizens to form their own view with sufficient information. That is precisely the space we are trying to open from REMCO.
