Leonor's Spain
Princess Leonor has aroused passions after her swearing in of the flag in Zaragoza and her military debut at the Royal Palace on October 12. All the eyes of the attendees, the Spanish and European press focused on that smiling young woman who is two weeks away from the solemn act of swearing in the Constitution in the Cortes. Cortes that have nothing to do with those that in her day welcomed her father after reaching the age of majority to exercise his official commitment to be the heir to the crown. Felipe González governed, ETA terrorized Basque society and the rest of Spain with hundreds of murders; The Catalan independentists had obtained 18 deputies and our democracy had barely turned ten years old. Leonor's Spain is nothing like the one in which the young Prince Felipe swore his respect for the Constitution in 1986.
We are now without a government, with a failed investiture of the opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and waiting for Pedro Sánchez to get all the support he needs to be president. Neither the investiture nor the legislature will be easy with partners who keep their support for the PSOE in suspense. Nothing is clear yet except that governing is going to be historically complex. One of the similarities that Leonor will experience as her father is that the independentists, neither Bildu, nor ERC, nor Junts, will be present in the Chamber. ETA existed but not Bildu, Pujol's CiU existed but not Junts. It was a Spain in which the success of the transition was being experienced, in which the democratic foundations as we know them were being laid, with its shortcomings and its virtues, but politically progress was being made.
Leonor's Spain is politically unstable. That of her father's beginning also depended on the nationalists but not at the current level, not with a Parliament as fragmented as the current one, in which the future Government will have to rely on politically very uncomfortable formations. Without them, the current candidate for the investiture would not achieve his objective, this is our parliamentary system, our democracy. Leonor will swear the Constitution in front of a Spain that seems politically very complex. Princess Leonor will swear in the Constitution on October 31 in front of a Congress in office, with a president in office, with a very turbulent legislature forecast when it comes to gathering support, with a Congress in which it seems that she will be able to use the co-official languages as demanded by the independentists, whether it is history because the amnesty and the referendum now occupy the frontispiece of the negotiations so that Sánchez achieves his goals of remaining in Moncloa. Leonor's Spain feels neither the cohesion nor the internal pride that her father knew, a country that divined a future of hope, a horizon of progress and that, now, unfortunately, is no longer more than the memory of an unrepeatable past.
Princess Leonor's oath of the Constitution
Leonor: “I ask the Spanish to trust me”. The ceremony of one of the most important institutional events in Spain takes place on three stages and in four events, with parades, speeches, decorations, lunch and dinner.
The acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, gave a speech this Tuesday in the Royal Palace after Princess Leonor swore in the Constitution in Congress: “Count, Your Highness, on the loyalty, respect and affection of the Government,” he said. Sanchez stated. The event was held on the day Leonor turns 18, an essential requirement to become queen and head of state of Spain. “I am committed to our democratic principles and our constitutional values, which I fully assume,” the Princess said later at the Royal Palace, where she received the Order of Charles III. “I ask you to trust me, as I have all my trust in our future,” added the heir to the throne. The most notable absences have been those of Don Juan Carlos I and Doña Sofía, who will only be present at the private celebration of the Princess's birthday at the Palacio del Pardo. The representatives of Podemos, IU, ERC, Junts, Bildu, PNV and BNG have not attended. Nor have the regional presidents of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, attended; nor from the Basque Country, Iñigo Urkullu.
Princess Leonor gave a brief speech at the Royal Palace, just after her father had imposed on her the necklace of Charles III, the highest distinction of the Kingdom as a commemoration of her coming of age and the swearing in of the Constitution. In her speech, the Princess of Asturias reaffirmed her full commitment to “our democratic principles and our constitutional values”, and thanked her for the necklace that her father gave her, as well as the medals from the Congress and the Senate, which were awarded to her today. and has committed to observing “behavior that deserves the recognition and appreciation of citizens.” Finally, she has made a request: “I ask you to trust me.” This is the full text of Leonor de Borbón's speech, provided by the King's House:
The journalists Carlos Franganillo and Alejandra Herranz from a set in the Congress of Deputies will carry out a special information with all the details of the swearing-in of the Constitution of the Princess of Asturias. Among others, Macarena Bartolomé, parliamentary reporter for TVE, and Alejandro Riego, responsible for information on Casa Real, will participate as specialized editors. And among the guests, personalities such as Miquel Roca, one of the fathers of the Constitution, or Teresa Sanjurjo, director of the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
Leonor (The Future of the Renewed Monarchy)
On October 31, as the culmination of a month full of key moments, the heir to the throne will come of age and little by little all the details that we will see on that historic day will become known. The eldest daughter of Kings Felipe and Letizia will swear the Spanish Constitution before the Cortes Generales and then there will be an institutional ceremony at the Royal Palace of Madrid, where the Collar of the Royal Order of Charles III will be imposed on her, of which we will tell you its story next.
“Leonor, the future of the renewed monarchy”, a documentary in which the personality of the Princess of Asturias is discovered, it is revealed why she was away from the media gaze for years and the obstacles she faces on her path are analyzed towards the reign. A detailed and surprising account, made by journalists, of what Leonor's future as queen is and will be like.