The Princess of Asturias spends her days as a boarding student in Wales, where she has spent the last two years in a leading school, away from the Spanish media noise and with the last few months of freedom. Because when she returns to Spain, on May 20, she will resume the institutional agenda, which will end in Palma de Mallorca in August, and at the end of that month she will already be admitted to the General Military Academy. Minister Robles affirmed yesterday that her training will adapt to her commitments, and her most important will come, as the Constitution establishes, "upon reaching the age of majority." Because the Heiress must swear the Constitution once she turns 18, on October 31.
With the details of his military training finalized, Zarzuela and the Government will sit down at the necessary moment to close the fringes on the solemn swearing-in ceremony. In constitutional Spain there is only one reference to this ceremony, that of his father, who took the oath on January 30, the same day he turned 18, so it is not enough to set a precedent. That would be the ideal day for the Princess to do so. But political times are different from those of the Crown, and with elections at the end of the year, it is still not clear if the Princess should delay the swearing in at the beginning of 2024, a scenario that Sánchez has already raised on several occasions and to which the government is not closed.
Casa Real will consult lawyers when the time comes to talk about the subject. However, the minister spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, assured yesterday at the press conference after the Council of Ministers that "the constitutional provision will be fulfilled", without delving into more details about the interpretation of the norm. She also stated that "at the time when [the announcement] is to be made, we will do it as usual in normal institutional relations with the House of His Majesty the King and at the time it is considered appropriate." Therefore, it is most likely that until after the summer there will be no news about the Princess's oath, conditioned by Sánchez's plans to call elections. Because if the legislature exhausts, which ends on December 10, it gives time for the Princess swore before the dissolution of the Cortes.
In addition to the interpretation by jurists of section 2 of article 61, which regulates that "the Crown Prince, upon reaching the age of majority, and the Regent or Regents upon taking office, shall take the same oath, as well as that of fidelity to the King", the Government will assess the political noise that the oath can generate once they are open to not taking place on the same day as the Heiress's birthday.
Podemos, a member of the Government, has already described the solemn ceremony as a "medieval" commitment, so that part of its deputies, as well as other political parties, could plant the first-born of Felipe VI in the most important step of his life Princess of Asturias and encourage criticism.
Whether or not it is his birthday, the Spanish political scene makes it difficult for the Princess's oath to be accepted as that of her father in 1986, when all the members of the Lower House wore morning suits and attended the ceremony of the then heir. Zarzuela will remain silent until the opportune moment arrives to announce the way in which the Princess will comply with an essential constitutional procedure in her role as heir to the throne.
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