Princess Leonor swears to Spanish Constitution
Princess Leonor, the heir to the Spanish throne, has pledged her allegiance to the constitution in a ceremony that was boycotted by republican government ministers and Catalan and Basque nationalist MPs, The Guardian reports.
Leonor swore the oath in Spain’s congress as she turned 18 on Tuesday, and was accompanied by her parents, King Felipe and Queen Letizia, her sister, Sofía, and Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Her grandfather Juan Carlos, the self-exiled former king, was absent.
Leonor’s promise of allegiance to the Spanish constitution came 37 years after her father took the same oath on his 18th birthday on 30 January 1986. Felipe came to the throne in 2014 after his father abdicated amid plummeting popularity.
Juan Carlos, now 85, left Spain for Abu Dhabi in August 2020 after a series of damaging allegations about his business dealings further dented his already battered reputation and embarrassed King Felipe.
Juan Carlos and his wife, Sofía, were expected to be present at a private birthday party for Leonor at the Pardo Palace later on Tuesday.
In a short public speech following her oath, Leonor said she had “solemnly, publicly and formally promised to uphold our democratic principles and our constitutional values”. She added: “On this important day that I’ll always remember with great emotion, I ask you to put your trust in me, just as I have put all my trust in the future of our nation.”
