After nearly 40 years on the throne, Spain’s King Juan Carlos will be stepping down, the country’s prime minister said Monday.

He did not say when Juan Carlos would abdicate because the government must now craft a law creating a legal mechanism for the abdication and for 46-year-old Felipe’s assumption of power.

The 76-year-old Juan Carlos oversaw his country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy but has had repeated health problems in recent years.

Spaniards generally hold the king in high regard for his service to the nation and his defense of democracy after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 — especially the king’s decisive stand to halt a right-wing military coup in 1981.

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