23-F, the most difficult day of the King

In the Palacio de la Zarzuela, Monday is presented as another day. The King's agenda does not mark any special event and the political agenda includes the investiture vote of the new president of the government, after the resignation of Adolfo Suárez, with no surprise expected. But at 6.23 in the afternoon, things will take an unexpected turn. When Don Juan Carlos is about to leave his office, Lieutenant Colonel Tejero bursts into Congress and kidnaps the deputies and the entire government pending the arrival of a higher military authority. In the Palace, the first moments are of confusion. Nobody knows what has happened: only that there have been shouts, and machine gun bursts ... how little has been heard on the radio, which broadcast the vote live. Soon it is clear that it is a coup and the coup plotters claim to act in the name of the King.