Princess Leonor, the inheritor obvious to the Spanish throne, swore allegiance to the structure on Tuesday, her eighteenth birthday, as a authorized first step in the direction of taking on her father King Felipe VI’s throne.
Her mom Queen Letizia and youthful sister Sofia joined Felipe as Leonor took the oath earlier than a joint session of each homes of parliament.
Leonor wore a white swimsuit and after the taking part in of the nationwide anthem, she pledged loyalty on the identical copy of the structure as her father did 37 years in the past.
“I swear to faithfully fulfill my duties, to guard and have protected the Structure and its legal guidelines, to respect the rights of residents and autonomous communities and to be devoted to the king,” she mentioned.
Loud applause echoed across the chamber of deputies in Madrid for a number of minutes and the king embraced his daughter.
Madrid Metropolis Corridor arrange large screens within the central Puerta del Sol sq. for the general public to observe a dwell broadcast of the transient ceremony.
A crowd had gathered exterior parliament amid a sea of Spanish flags and shouts of “Lengthy dwell Spain”.
The streets had been adorned with photos of the queen-in-waiting.
With the oath taken, Leonor can legally succeed Felipe and routinely turns into head of state within the occasion of the monarch’s absence.
Her grandfather Juan Carlos, who took the oath in 1969 when dictator Normal Francisco Franco named him as his successor, didn’t attend the ceremony.
Media reported he would attend a personal occasion on the El Pardo palace close to Madrid after the occasion, the primary formal royal household gathering he would attend since going into exile.
Juan Carlos got here to the throne in 1975 after Franco’s dying and was broadly revered for his function in serving to information Spain from dictatorship to democracy.
However a gradual move of embarrassing tales about his love life and private wealth eroded his standing.
He abdicated in 2014, dogged by scandals and well being issues, and in 2020 went into self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi amid investigations into his monetary affairs, since been shelved.