Coronation Deferred

Last July Generalissimo Francisco Franco named him as "my successor"; so Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon is destined to become Spain's constitutional monarch sooner or later. Recent rumors had it sooner. Barcelona's weekly magazine Mundo, which has close ties to Franco's new Cabinet, last month flatly forecast an April 1 date for the coronation of the 32-year-old prince. Now it appears that Juan Carlos' day will come later--maybe much later. At 77, and after 31 years of rule, Franco is not in the best of health, but he is determined to carry on. "While God gives me life," he promised in a vigorous New Year's Eve address, "I will be working with you for the fatherland." The man who some day will become Spain's King Juan III got the message. Last week Juan Carlos told a friend: "There is still a long way ahead."

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