The showcase that surrounds the historic oath of the Constitution before the Cortes Generales by Leonor Borbon Ortiz next Tuesday, October 31, is just the wrapping that adorns the solemn moment starring the Heiress.
The princess, her parents and her sister will be acclaimed on a tour of Madrid, the 7,500 pennants with our flag that the City Council distributes for the occasion will display the colors of Spain. But behind the event, the security deployed to protect the Princess of Asturias, the Kings, the personalities and the citizens who will accompany the Royal Family exceeds the usual measures.
Not only Extreme precautions will be taken in Carrera de San Jerónimo and El Palacio de El Pardo, where a birthday party is held after the swearing-in for the coming of age of the future queen. The entire capital will be literally armored but the route area will be a real bunker.
There will be many people in the streets: the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, He has issued a statement in which he invites Madrid residents to actively participate in the “historic event” that will take place on Tuesday, and has encouraged them to decorate the city with the national flag. “Madrileños! On October 31, coinciding with her 18th birthday and, therefore, with her coming of age, Her Royal Highness the Princess of Asturias, Doña Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, will swear before the Cortes Generales to save and cause to be saved the Constitution, as well as his fidelity to the King, as stipulated in article 61.2 of our Magna Carta”, reads the side.
“The city where she was born and in which she has lived most of her life will welcome a new milestone in the gradual assumption of the role that our Magna Carta recognizes as successor to the Head of State,” the mayor added.
It is, in fact, an occasion “of great importance”, as Almeida points out. But it also represents an unusual concentration of personalities and the public, including the head of state, the Heiress, the president of the Government, the entire Executive, and the main political leaders, with the usual absences of nationalist groups. Furthermore, we are, both in Madrid and in many European cities, in a particularly delicate state of alert since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East following the brutal attack by Hamas and Israel’s reaction. The anti-terrorist alert level since the conflict began is a reinforced 4. The maximum is 5, which is only activated when there is suspicion of imminent attacks.
Total alert just one degree below ‘Imminent attack’
The alert is total and the State Security Forces They are once again faced with the challenge of ensuring that everything goes well. To begin with, if it doesn’t rain (it doesn’t rain on Tuesday), Leonor will arrive at the Carrera de San Jerónimo palace (the building was inaugurated on October 31, 1850) at 11 o’clock in the morning, in A convertible car, after touring the center of Madrid. Cadet Leonor will review an honors battalion made up of four companies from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Civil Guard. Afterwards, Don Felipe, the Queen, the Heiress, and her sister the Infanta Sofía will be completed by Pedro Sánchez, rest of the Government and the authorities present at the event. Once inside the chamber, the solemn oath of the Constitution will take place. Once the Heiress has committed to defending the Magna Carta, the medals of the Congress and the Senate will be awarded to her. It will end with a farewell salute in the Hall of Lost Steps and the parade of the honors battalion.
But beyond the protocol acts that surround the historic moment of our future queen, we are faced with a colossal challenge: guaranteeing security. This implies deployment before, during and after the event. There will be plainclothes agents infiltrated and located where necessary, escorts who will flank the vehicle on foot. The protocol escort will be the responsibility of the Royal Household Squadron. There will thus be an honor guard of the Municipal Police, chaired by the vice mayor of Madrid, Inma Sanz, which will include the Cavalry Squadron and the Municipal Police Music Band, which will be deployed in the Plaza de la Villa. The King’s House, and of course officials from the National Intelligence Center, the National Police and the Civil Guard are working against the clock. There will be snipers stationed in the adjacent buildings and exhaustive control of residents has been launched in the nearby areas and the area will be plagued by inhibitors and anti-drone devices.
The exact route It may change but we know that the procession that will accompany Leonor and her family will depart from the Royal Palace, cross Bailén Street, towards Puerta del Sol, along Mayor Street and will arrive at the San Jerónimo street, as detailed Informalia commands of the operation.
The neighbors of the buildings on the route are being identified (and will continue to be done), with special attention to occasional residents staying in hotels or tourist apartments. Agent guards will be set up at the portals, and those entering and leaving will be asked for documentation at crucial moments of the event.
Doña Leonor’s oath will constitute For the mayor, an echo of what took place 37 years ago, on January 30, 1986, in the same Palacio de las Cortes de la Carrera de San Jerónimo. On that occasion, it was Don Felipe, who was coming of age that day, who swore in the presence of his parents, Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía, a Constitution that at that time was not even a decade old.
“Many things have changed in Madrid and Spain since then, but one persists as a symbol of our unity and permanence: the Crown, the key to the regime of freedom and coexistence consecrated by our Constitution. Our capital and its citizens, throughout Throughout centuries of Spanish History and through vicissitudes of a very diverse nature, they have shown their attachment and support to this key Institution in the structure of Spain and I am convinced that this will be the case in the next swearing-in of Doña Leonor,” Martínez highlighted. -Almeida.
“May our streets and balconies be decorated with the colors of the national flag, a symbol that unites all Spaniards,” as the King recalled in the recent Flag oath of the Princess of Asturias in Zaragoza. And, finally, that the presence mass of Madrid residents in the places that will be enabled to follow from the public space what happens within the Congress speak eloquently of the high appreciation and esteem that all of Spain feels for the figures of the King and Princess of Asturias, present and future of our Monarchy”, he concluded.
Together with the dictated side, the Madrid City Council has organized a series of actions to decorate the city and highlight the historical importance of this fact. In the words of the mayor, the City Council “is going to do everything possible so that the people of Madrid can participate in this historic event” that will reaffirm the “unconditional commitment of the city of Madrid to the Monarchy.”
The Cibeles Palace and the fountains of Cibeles and Neptune They will be illuminated with the colors of the national flag on October 30 and 31 and the swearing-in ceremony will be broadcast on the giant screens in the Plaza del Callao. The Municipal Transport Company (EMT) will decorate its vehicles with the Leonor de Borbón coat of arms on the sides and with the national flag on the rear. An outdoor advertising campaign has also been developed to decorate the streets of central Madrid with banners, MUPIS and digital marquees.
The celebration will end on the afternoon of October 31 (5 p.m.). While Leonor celebrates her birthday and coming of age with her family at the El Pardo palace, there will be a commemorative concert of traditional Spanish music dedicated to the Princess of Asturias, by the Municipal Symphonic Band directed by maestro Jan Cober, in the Templete in El Retiro park.