Princess Leonor, at the gates of coming of age

Next year the Princess of Asturias will have to swear to the Constitution and carry out her military training

MADRID, 30 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Princess Leonor turns 17 this October 31 and, as happened a year ago, she will once again celebrate with her family after having fulfilled one of her star commitments, the delivery of the Princess of Asturias Awards.

The heiress to the throne is in her second year of high school at the UWC Atlantic College in Wales, which has not prevented her from assuming a greater public presence during these two years in accordance with the role she is called to play in the future.

This presence has revolved mainly around two awards that are linked to her figure, the Princess of Asturias and the Princess of Girona, in which the eldest daughter of the Kings has a prominent role and speaks in public.

On Friday she did it again with a speech in which, as on other occasions, she spoke of the role that young people like her are called upon to play, defending the need to "maintain enthusiasm" for knowing and learning in order to continue progressing, in the face of the attentive and proud look of Don Felipe and Doña Letizia.

Princess Leonor has also accompanied the King and Queen in some other institutional commitments and has carried out others, generally in relation to the two aforementioned awards, in the company of her sister, the Infanta Sofía.

In the last year, he has only done one solo act, a visit to a high school in Leganés (Madrid) in which he had the opportunity to be one more with other boys his age during a day focused on the risks on the Internet and how to deal with them .

Don Felipe's eldest daughter has twelve months ahead of her to complete her Baccalaureate and prepare for coming of age and the new responsibilities it will bring. While she is studying in Wales, in Spain the political class has already been debating this important moment.

Article 61.2 of the Constitution stipulates that "the Crown Prince, upon reaching the age of majority" must take the same oath as the King upon being crowned--faithfully perform his duties, keep and enforce the Constitution and the laws, and respect the rights of citizens and of the Autonomous Communities--, as well as "fidelity" to the monarch.

Thus, the future queen has to swear to the Constitution on October 31, 2023 --Felipe VI, still Prince of Asturias, did so on January 30, 1986-- but the possibility of this happening with the Cortes dissolved due to the The call for general elections has generated some debate about how this formalism could be carried out.

The main obstacle would be an early election, something that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been ruling out whenever he has been asked, assuring that his intention is to exhaust the legislature. This would mean that the general elections are held in December.

This was stated precisely after meeting with the King at the Almudaina Palace in early August. Then, Sánchez made it clear that when the time comes, the Government will agree with the King's House how the swearing-in ceremony of Princess Leonor's Constitution will be carried out.

A legal report from Congress to which Europa Press had access a few weeks ago also confirms that if there is no advance in the appointment with the polls there should be no problem for the Princess of Asturias to swear the Magna Carta on her 18th birthday.

According to this document, prepared by Manuel Delgado-Iribarren, a lawyer from the Joint Commission for the European Union, the elections should be held no later than December 10, 2023. Usually, the President of the Government dissolves the Cortes 54 days before the date of the elections. elections but it is not necessary to do so because there is the option of letting the mandate of the Chambers expire.

In accordance with article 68.4 of the Constitution, that mandate ends four years after the election of the Chambers or the day of dissolution. Thus, there is the option of letting the mandate expire on November 10, 2023, four years after the last electoral appointment.

Apart from this formality on her way to one day becoming queen, Princess Leonor will also have to comply with another very soon, that of her military training, given that she is called to be, as her father is now, captain General of the Armies.

It is expected that the heiress will also follow in her father's footsteps and that, once she has completed her Baccalaureate in Wales, she will go through the three academies: the Air Force, in San Javier (Murcia), the Land Army, in Zaragoza; and the Naval School of Marín (Pontevedra), before embarking to receive instruction as a midshipman on the training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano.

The heiress to the throne has also had the opportunity in the last year to witness the rejection that the Crown generates in a sector of the citizenry, particularly in Catalonia. The Princess of Girona Awards were held for the third time outside the city that gives them their name, this time in Cornellá de Llobregat.

However, on this occasion, a visit to Figueras, a town located in Girona, was planned to hold a meeting with the winners of this edition at the Dalí Museum headquarters, accompanied by the Infanta Sofía. Princess Leonor and her sister were received with two simultaneous rallies, one in favor of the monarchy, organized by Convivencia Cívica Catalana, and another against, called by ANC, CDR, CxRep and Òmnium.

Also on Friday in Oviedo, a few dozen people gathered against the monarchy, booing and whistling, but in this case they were overshadowed by the general feeling of celebration among the citizens who, year after year, receive the King and Queen and their daughters with applause and to the sound of hundreds of bagpipes.