On her 18th birthday, Spain’s crown princess takes step toward eventually becoming queen
MADRID — The heir to the Spanish throne, Princess Leonor, is to swear allegiance to the constitution on her 18th birthday Tuesday, in a gala event that lays the groundwork for her eventual accession as queen when the time comes.
The nationally televised ceremony in the lower house of parliament is understood to symbolize the continuity of Spain’s constitutional monarchy and the institution’s allegiance to the legislative chamber.
Leonor is expected to use the same oath as her father, King Felipe VI, did when, as prince, he turned 18 in 1986.
Leonor de Borbón Ortiz became crown princess when Felipe was proclaimed king June 19, 2014. Her face has been in the media a lot lately, and already the term “Leonormania” is being used, underlining her growing popularity as the modern face of the monarchy.
The ceremony Tuesday is necessary for her to be able to ascend the throne and become queen.
Banners with her picture decorated lampposts along several of Madrid’s main streets. Many official buildings were festooned with drapes and tapestries for the ceremony, which was to be shown on national TV and on several giant screens set up in the capital.
Spain’s former monarch, Juan Carlos, says he is leaving Spain to live in another country amid corruption allegations.
The royal family was expected to be escorted to parliament by a mounted squadron of the Royal Guard. By the early hours of Tuesday, crowds had begun lining the sidewalks along the route.
Representatives from leftist political parties, including three government ministers, and lawmakers from Basque, Catalan and Galician regional and separatists parties boycotted the event, as they favor a republic.
The royal family is still trying to recover its former good name in Spanish society and make up for the scandals involving several family members, most notably former King Juan Carlos, Leonor’s grandfather.
Neither Juan Carlos nor former Queen Sofía will attend the special parliamentary session or the subsequent ceremony in Madrid’s Royal Palace, but they are to be present at an evening family gathering in the Pardo Palace outside Madrid.
Thousands of ordinary citizens got into legal trouble for their parts in Catalonia’s illegal independence bid that brought Spain to the brink of rupture.
Juan Carlos, 85, who abdicated in 2014, left Spain for Abu Dhabi in 2020 amid a cloud of financial scandals. The investigations in Spain and Switzerland have since been dropped, and he won another suit against a former lover in October.
He has made it known that he would like to return Spain, but it’s not clear whether Felipe or the government would agree to that just yet.
Felipe and Letizia have restored some of the monarchy’s image, but for many Spaniards, the institution is still questioned, given that it was former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco who put Juan Carlos on the throne, bypassing his father and the natural heir, Juan de Borbón. Spain hadn’t had a royal family since Alfonso XIII went into exile with the coming of the Second Republic in 1931, five years before Franco and other generals staged a coup.
Nowadays, the royal family’s popularity is difficult to gauge. Spain’s main polling body has stopped asking Spaniards what they think of the royals since 2015 amid the myriad scandals.
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf celebrates his golden jubilee Friday, making him the longest-reigning king in the history of the Swedish monarchy.
Little is known about Leonor’s personality, as she has yet to give media interviews. But when she received her graduation diploma in Wales earlier this year, her fellow students cheered her on and her tutor praised her “unwavering passion for learning, for understanding people and exploring diverse perspectives,” adding that they would miss her sense of humor.
Leonor is currently receiving basic military training at an academy in the northeastern city of Zaragoza. She speaks English, French, Catalan and some Arabic.
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