Heir to the Spanish throne, Princess Leonor de Bourbon will swear loyalty to the Constitution this Tuesday, her 18th birthday, a key event for the Spanish monarchy, which will further remove the memory of the eventful end of her grandfather’s reign Juan Carlos. “On October 31, I will be 18 years old and have the honor of taking an oath on the Constitution (…) I understand very well and I am aware of what my duty is and what my responsibilities entail,” declared on October 20 the Princess of Asturias, her official title.
An event which “ensures continuity to the Crown”
As soon as this oath is taken, the heir to the Spanish Crown will be constitutionally able to succeed her father, King Felipe VI, at the head of the State and the armed forces. The ceremony, which will be broadcast on giant screens in the center of Madrid, will begin at 11 a.m. in front of the two chambers of Parliament meeting in extraordinary session, in the presence of the main representatives of the State.
In Spain, it is customary for the monarch’s eldest son to inherit power, this is called male primogeniture. But Felipe VI having only had daughters with Queen Letizia (Leonor and Sofia), she would become the first female head of the Spanish state and armies in her own right since Isabella II, who reigned from 1833 to 1868.
A long-prepared rite of passage that his grandfather Juan Carlos I also experienced in 1969, designated as his successor by the dictator Francisco Franco, who died six years later, then in 1986 by his father Felipe VI. For journalist José Antonio Zarzalejos, former editor-in-chief of the dailies El Correo and ABC and author of a book on Felipe VI, the event “is very important, because it offers stability and continuity to the Crown” of Spain, shaken by the end of the reign of Juan Carlos.
King Emeritus Juan Carlos will not attend the ceremony
Long highly appreciated in Spain for having enabled the democratic transition from 1975, Juan Carlos saw his popularity plummet after embarrassing revelations about the dubious origins of his fortune, his extramarital affairs and his lavish lifestyle. The scandals forced him to abdicate in 2014 and go into exile in the United Arab Emirates in 2020. The legal investigations against him have certainly been closed since, but not because his innocence was established, rather for reasons of limitation or because he enjoyed immunity until 2014 as head of state.
Since his departure to the Gulf, he has only returned to Spain for rare private visits. Now 85 years old and physically diminished, the former sovereign was an “exceptional king, the founding king” of Spanish democracy, but his reign “ended badly because of a double urge for sex and money”, summarizes José Antonio Zarzalejos. He believes that his son Felipe VI “restored the reputation of the monarchy” and that Leonor will help strengthen this dynamic. Especially since the princess, as a woman, is “in phase” with society, he explains.
A sign of the break with the past, Juan Carlos will not attend the swearing-in in Parliament. According to the Spanish press, he would, however, be present at the private celebration which will follow the ceremony. Representatives of the Basque, Catalan and Galician independence parties, of republican persuasion and who never attend meetings with the king, and part of the radical left, hostile to the monarchy, will boycott the ceremony.
On Saturday, a convention of Republicans meeting in Madrid described Leonor’s swearing-in as “an act of affirmation of an institution, the Spanish monarchy, (which is) historically corrupt and ever more distant from citizens.”
She has no problems, a “normal” profile centered on her family and her studies
Unlike her grandfather, Leonor, however, enjoys a very good image in a country where the debate on the monarchy is permanent. “She has no fuss, no stories” and has a “normal” profile, focused on her family and her studies, emphasizes José Antonio Zarzalejos. Leonor, who also speaks French, English and Catalan and is learning Basque and Galician, attended a private school in Madrid, the “Colegio Santa María de los Rosales”, before going to boarding school at UWC Atlantic College , in Wales, where she completed her baccalaureate.
As is tradition, in August she began a year-long military training at the Army Academy, which she will continue with a year of training in the Air Force and another in the Navy. If she follows in her father’s footsteps, she will then study at a public university in Spain, before joining a prestigious foreign university to obtain a master’s degree in international relations. In the case of Felipe VI, it was Georgetown University, in Washington.