The Princess of Asturias will swear in the Constitution on October 31 and the emeritus will only go to a subsequent family event

The event will take place before the Cortes on his birthday and could take place even with the Government in office

The Princess of Asturias will swear in the Constitution on October 31, the day of her 18th birthday, in a plenary session of the Congress and Senate, as announced this Friday by Zarzuela. The King Emeritus will not attend the event, but he has been invited to a subsequent family celebration at the El Pardo Palace.

The date was agreed upon in the meeting held on Thursday at the initiative of the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, and attended by the president of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, as well as representatives of the Government and the King's House.

After the formal ceremony before the Cortes, provided for in the Constitution, Princess Leonor will receive the Collar of the Order of Carlos III in a ceremony at the Royal Palace in the presence of the powers of the State. This ceremony will be followed by a lunch with a representation of the highest authorities of the State.

On the other hand, the King's House has reported that after both institutional events, a private family celebration will take place at the El Pardo Palace, which will be attended by the Kings, the Princess of Asturias, the Infanta Sofía, as well as the family of Don Felipe and that of Doña Letizia.

Sources consulted by Europa Press have clarified that the King Emeritus will only attend this last celebration and will not be present at the institutional events.

The King's eldest daughter will thus comply with the procedure established in article 61 of the Constitution. It stipulates that "the Crown Prince, upon reaching the age of majority (...) will take the same oath" as the head of State "as well as that of fidelity to the King."

The initially planned electoral calendar had raised doubts about whether the Princess of Asturias could take the oath on her 18th birthday, as her father did on January 30, 1986, since by that date the Cortes should have been dissolved. .

ACTING GOVERNMENT

However, the electoral advance to July 23 decided by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, after the municipal and regional elections of May 28 has made it easier for the Cortes to be fully operational.

Paradoxically, by October 31 there may not yet be a Government, since next week the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will face the investiture with little prospect of achieving the necessary 176 votes.

If this happens, Felipe VI should call a new round of consultations with the parties and commission a new candidate, presumably Sánchez, to try to gather the necessary support. For the moment, the acting president has not wanted to clarify if he will seek his investiture as soon as possible or if he will exhaust the time he has until the end of November.

Thus, for the day of Princess Leonor's swearing-in of the Constitution, it is most likely that Sánchez will attend as acting president. However, the person in charge of taking the oath of the heir to the throne will be Armengol, as at the time was the then president of Congress, Gregorio Peces Barba, with Don Felipe.

LOADED AGENDA FOR THE PRINCESS

The eldest daughter of the Kings has a month full of activities ahead of her. After having received this week the saber that accredits her as a lady cadet at the General Military Academy of Zaragoza, the Princess of Asturias will have to swear the flag on October 7.

In addition, on October 20, another event on the agenda of the heir to the throne will take place, the presentation of the Princess of Asturias Awards at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. Here, in addition, she must give a short speech.