The Diplomat
The Princess of Asturias will begin her military training next academic year at the General Academy of Zaragoza and will spend the next three years in the three armies of the Spanish Armed Forces, following in the footsteps of King Felipe VI, according to the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles.
The Heiress of the Crown, who is completing her second year of high school in Wales, will begin her military training at the end of August or beginning of September in Zaragoza, where she will complete the first year until the swearing in of the flag, and then continue with the second year, the Minister indicated.
In the second year of her training, she will join the third course at the Naval School of Marín, in Pontevedra, and will also embark on the Juan Sebastián Elcano training ship, while in the third year she will take the fourth course at the General Air and Space Academy in San Javier (Murcia).
According to article 2 of the 2007 Military Career Act, the Government has the power to determine by royal decree the training that the Princess of Asturias receives “taking into account the requirements of her high representation and her status as heir to the Crown”. Precisely what the Council of Ministers did yesterday was to approve this royal decree, which has the backing of the Council of State, according to government sources quoted by Europa Press.
The now King carried out his military studies between September 1985 and July 1988, passing through the three academies, being sworn in in Zaragoza on 11 October 1985. At the end of his studies, in July 1989, he received the offices of lieutenant of infantry, naval ensign and lieutenant of the Air Force.
Robles said that the Princess of Asturias will be the head of her promotion, once she has completed her training in the 2025-2026 academic year, as a lieutenant in the Army and Air Force and as a naval second lieutenant in the Navy, and will be promoted as she is promoted, although she will not occupy a post.
The Minister of Defence also welcomed the fact that in the future Spain will have a woman at the head of the Armed Forces, given that the Head of State is also Captain General of the Armed Forces, as stipulated in the Constitution.
According to Margarita Robles, the King’s Household has given its “favourable report” on the military training of the heiress proposed by the Government, given the “special interest” in this being able to begin as quickly as possible once Princess Leonor completes her high school studies.
The minister stressed that Princess Leonor will follow the same path as her father, arguing that in addition to joining the military career now, she will do so with young people of her own age and will also receive “training in values and leadership” during these three years. Afterwards, she will be able to take the university degree she deems appropriate, she said.
Training “appropriate and valuable”, according to Zarzuela
The Zarzuela also valued the relevance and pertinence of the future Queen receiving military training. In a statement, the King and Queen indicated that they consider it to be “very convenient and valuable” since it “reinforces the capacity for service and dedication and facilitates the representative duties” that the Princess of Asturias will have to assume in the future.
Furthermore, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia are satisfied with this new stage of training, aware of their eldest daughter’s “willingness, interest and enthusiasm to receive this training”. “Princess Leonor is aware of the demands and sacrifices involved in military life and is very conscious of the honour of training and serving alongside the men and women of our Armed Forces,” added Zarzuela.
The military training and career that the Government has designed for her “will provide her with the knowledge and skills specific to the military sphere” and at the same time “will expressly promote virtues such as loyalty, discipline, courage and comradeship, and principles such as responsibility, exemplarity and austerity” that will serve her in her role in the service of the Spanish people, the King’s Household stressed.
On the other hand, both the Government and Zarzuela stressed that, in parliamentary monarchies such as Spain’s, heirs receive this type of training. Thus, the King’s Household stressed that it is “a widely observed and shared tradition” in European royal houses for future monarchs to develop a military career in addition to receiving university training, given that as heads of state they will also be responsible for exercising supreme command of the Armed Forces.
Now that the military training that the Princess of Asturias will receive is known, it remains to be clarified when she will take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution, as her father did, when she came of age on 31 October.
The Government has avoided clarifying whether the oath could be postponed due to the electoral calendar, as the Cortes could be dissolved by that date. In this regard, the minister spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, yesterday limited herself to pointing out that in this case, too, the “constitutional provisions” will be complied with.
When the time comes, she said, the Government will address the matter with the King’s Household, within the “normal institutional relationship” and “we will go hand in hand with the Royal Household” when it comes to making the decision.
