Lady Cadet Borbón Ortiz crawling under a wire fence; crossing a pool with water up to her neck and carrying combat equipment; studying a map knee on the ground; preparing to fire her rifle or receiving an officer’s saber from a veteran. The images of the military training of the Princess of Asturias have flooded the media in recent weeks, to the point that the topic crept into the debate of Feijóo’s failed investiture when the ERC deputy Gabriel Rufián snapped at the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, that Leonor de Borbón “has more military” than the ultra leader.
La Zarzuela assures that the dissemination of the photos responded to “professional” criteria and was guided by the desire to “provide all possible information without interfering in the functioning of the Academy.” [General Militar de Zaragoza] nor in the formation of the Princess.” And he adds that other royal houses, such as the Belgian or the British, have done the same. Government sources admit, however, that the controlled dissemination of images had an additional objective: to prevent media demand from generating a market for stolen photos of the heiress.
The truth is that his entry into the main training center of the Army has given him a public relevance that until now he lacked, except on rare occasions. And throughout the month of October she will once again occupy the front pages because she is the protagonist of three institutional events: her flag swearing in in Zaragoza, on the 7th; the presentation of the Princess of Asturias Awards in Oviedo, on the 20th, and the oath of the Constitution before the Cortes Generales gathered in solemn session on the 31st, the same day that she turns 18. “It is logical that she has greater projection as she assumes more responsibilities,” she alleges in the Royal Family.
The Kings jealously guarded the privacy of their two daughters while they were children, but now that they have grown up, that prudence can be counterproductive. From the moment she reaches the age of majority, Leonor de Borbón will be legally able to automatically occupy the throne in the event of her father’s absence, without the interregnum of a regency. But would Spanish society be in a position to assume that she was the head of state from one day to the next?
A survey done last year for the magazine Vanitatis He claimed that three out of every four Spaniards believe that the first-born daughter of Felipe VI will reign one day; while a survey released in August 2021 by the conservative digital The Spanish He maintained that 51.3% trust her. On the contrary, just two months later, a study on the leftist portal Public predicted that the Republic would defeat the Monarchy, by 39.4% to 31%, in an eventual referendum.
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Although the CIS has not carried out surveys on the Royal Family since 2015 and La Zarzuela assures that it does not commission them, in the King’s House they are convinced that the Princess of Asturias is widely known by society. It will be a superficial knowledge, since not much is known about her. Her own stay at the Zaragoza Academy, despite the proliferation of images, is surrounded by great silence and official information about her has been limited to little more than her training program. EL PAÍS has been able to learn some more details: that she has chosen to study French to perfect it, since she is already bilingual in English; or that she excels in subjects such as cartography, and not so much in physical activities, although she has quickly gotten in tune. The academy leaders highlight the ease with which she has integrated as one of them and the naturalness of her treatment with her classmates. They claim that they notice her time at the boarding school in Wales where she attended high school and that she is used to sharing a bedroom or taking care of her personal belongings herself. “She is the daughter of kings, but she is not a father’s daughter,” say those who know her.
The flag oath will be his first public appearance since he entered the country on August 17. The General. Like her father 38 years ago, she will respond with a resounding “yes, I swear” to the question of whether she is willing to give her life for Spain “if necessary.” La Zarzuela does not rule out that Felipe VI, just as Juan Carlos I did when his son was sworn in on October 11, 1985, may say a few words at this ceremony, although the lady cadet Borbón Ortiz will not kiss the flag alone, like him. , but with the 560 first-year students.
Only five days later, the heiress will be in the National Day parade in Madrid, but she will follow it from the stands, since it has been ruled out that she parade with the troops, as her father did in May 1986 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Although different reasons have been alleged – from security reasons to not diminishing the importance of the Armed Forces – the truth is that when Felipe VI did it she had already been in the ranks for almost a year.
Perhaps Leonor de Borbón will not be the brightest star of the Princess of Asturias Awards this year, as figures such as the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami or the American actress Meryl Streep will compete with her for prominence, but her speech at this ceremony, to which she is attending for the fifth consecutive year, he will be the only one to speak in the most important month of his life. And it will also be the last time that the presidency of this event will be held by her father, since in the future it will fall to her. The three days that the Kings and their first-born daughter will spend in Asturias, from October 19 to 21, will be dotted with winks and gifts with which the hosts want to celebrate the imminent coming of age of the heiress; among others, that the first event of this edition will be held in Porrúa, the town awarded as an Exemplary Town of Asturias in 2005, the year she was born.
The fact that Infanta Sofía is in Wales, in the same boarding school where the first-born studied, will mean that in most of these events the Princess of Asturias will not appear accompanied by her sister, from whom she is inseparable. Yes, she will support it in the most relevant one: the swearing in of the Constitution before the Cortes Generales, in the presence of the main authorities of the State and the Royal Family. Although not completely, since the king emeritus has only been invited to the subsequent private celebration of Doña Leonor’s birthday at the El Pardo Palace, with her relatives on her father’s and mother’s side.
The absence of Juan Carlos I in the joint session of the Congress and the Senate that symbolizes the continuity of the dynasty reveals the shreds that Felipe VI has had to leave behind to safeguard the institution. At his swearing-in, on January 30, 1986, the Count of Barcelona, Don Juan de Borbón, was in a prominent place, despite the fact that he never reigned. It does not seem, however, that the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, could praise today, as her predecessor, Gregorio Peces Barba, did then, the “exemplary conduct” of the Princess’s grandfather.
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