Princess Leonor will swear in the Constitution before a Parliament very different from the one that received her father in 1986

This time the presidents of Catalonia and Euskadi will not go and nationalists, independentists and part of the left will be absent

MADRID, 29 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Princess of Asturias will swear in the Constitution next Tuesday and she will do so on the same stage as her father almost 38 years ago, the Congress Hall, but before a Parliament that has changed a lot compared to the one it had in 1986.

That January 30, 1986, the then Prince Felipe was received in the chamber with "great applause", according to the Diary of sessions of that day, and in the seats and tribunes there were communist, socialist, 'popular', centrist deputies and senators and nationalists, as well as the then president of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, of CiU, and the lehendakari, José Antonio Ardanza, of the PNV.

This time Leonor de Borbón Ortíz will arrive at a chamber also full of parliamentarians, but basically from three political parties (PSOE, PP and Vox) and without the presidents of Catalonia or the Basque Country, only 'popular' regional leaders, socialists and a Canarian nationalist (Fernando Clavijo, from CC).

And the twenty pro-independence parliamentarians from ERC, Junts and Bildu and the six nationalists from the PNV and the BNG have already announced that they will not attend the princess' swearing-in. In 1986, the Monarchy's membership was reduced to ERC and Batasuna, which only had three deputies assigned to the Mixed Group.

Convergència y Unió (CiU), from one of whose 'legs' (CDC) the independence formations of PDeCAT and Junts were born three decades later, had obtained 12 deputies in 1982 and attended normally the swearing-in of Felipe de Borbón. And its parliamentary spokesperson, Miquel Roca, was one of the speakers of the 1978 Constitution that established the parliamentary Monarchy in Spain and regulated this ceremony of the oath of the heir to the Crown.

There was also the PNV of 1986, which had eight deputies, but the current one has dropped out at the last minute despite regularly attending the rounds of consultations organized by the head of state to designate an investiture candidate.

The left of the PSOE also attended the swearing-in of Felipe de Borbón, including the PCE, which had actively participated in the 1978 Constitution and which renounced the republic for the sake of consensus. Now Sumar is only going to send an institutional representation of no more than half a dozen people: its members of the Government, the two deputies who make up the Congress Board and the spokesperson. The rest of the parliamentarians have permission to 'plant' the heiress.

When the then Prince Felipe took the oath there were two centrist parties, the Democratic Center Union (UCD) that had governed in the transition (11 deputies) and its split from the Democratic and Social Center (CDS) of its former president Adolfo Suárez, with two seats. in the Mixed Group, although the majority force was the Popular Alliance with 107 deputies, which is the only one that has remained since then after being refounded as PP. And the current map is completed by Vox on the right.

And the PSOE of 1986, which had reached its maximum level with 202 deputies to facilitate the "change" with an absolute majority embodied by Felipe González in 1982, today is reduced to 121 deputies with Pedro Sánchez as acting president, second in the last general elections. and candidate for re-election with support from the left, independentists and nationalists.

At the swearing-in of Prince Felipe, the then president of Congress, the socialist Gregorio Peces Barba, finished his speech by cheering for Spain, the King and the Constitution, which according to the Diario de Sesiones, were "choraned" by those in attendance and responded with " long and prolonged applause". On October 31, the person who will speak at the head of the Chamber will be another socialist, Francina Armengol, and it will depend on her whether or not there is 'long live' the king and the Constitution.

One of the novelties of next Tuesday's ceremony is that the Princess of Asturias will receive the medals from the Congress and the Senate after the oath and will be invited to inaugurate the second edition of the Book of Honor of the Lower House.

What will not change between one ceremony and another is the copy of the Constitution on which the oath will be taken. It is a replica of the manuscript by the pendolist Luis Moreno, similar to the one exhibited in the Desk of the Constitution. Specifically, it is the seventh in a series of two hundred copies printed in 1980 on boned laid paper, manufactured expressly for this edition by Guarro Casas. To this copy used by Felipe de Borbon, an insert of the reforms of articles 13 and 135, the only ones approved so far, has been added for his daughter.

At the end of the event in the chamber and after the imposition of the decorations, the Royal Family will greet all those invited to the event in the Hall of Lost Steps, including the vice presidents and acting ministers, the dean of the Diplomatic Corps, the presidents of the autonomous communities present, the four former presidents of the Government, the leader of the PP as head of the opposition, the parliamentary spokespersons, the rapporteurs of the Constitution and the former presidents of both chambers.

Also present at the ceremony will be the mayor of Madrid, the president of the Council of State and the Court of Accounts, the Attorney General of the State, the Ombudsman, the Secretary of State for Relations with the Cortes, chiefs of staff, the delegate of the Government of Madrid, deputies and senators and other guests.

The oath is provided for in Article 61 of the Constitution, which establishes that the Crown Prince, upon reaching the age of majority, will take an oath to faithfully perform his duties, to uphold and ensure the observance of the Constitution and the laws, and to respect the rights of citizens and autonomous communities.