It has been almost 18 years since it has been known that Leonor de Borbón will come of age on October 31, but, with just over two months to go before that date, it is still unknown if the birthday of the heiress to the throne may coincide with the day in which the Cortes convene the celebration of the solemn ceremony in which the Princess of Asturias, as her father did on January 30, 1986, swore to the Constitution.
According to article 61 of the Magna Carta, "the Crown Prince, upon reaching the age of majority, and the Regent or Regents upon taking charge of their functions, shall take an oath before the Cortes Generales to uphold and enforce the Constitution and the laws and respect the rights of citizens and the Autonomous Communities, as well as that of fidelity to the King”.
The coming of age of the Princess of Asturias also ends the possibility of Queen Letizia assuming the regency. This constitutional measure has been in force since the proclamation of Felipe VI, on June 19, 2014, and would have been put into practice in the event that the King had died during the time in which his heir was a minor. .
The post-election calendar once again conditions the Princess's oath and reopens the debate that took place months ago when it was expected that the general elections would be held at the end of 2023, which could have made Leonor's coming of age date coincide with the courts dissolved. The current acting president, Pedro Sánchez, opened the melon questioning that the ceremony had to be held on October 31. Relying on the literalness of article 61, –“upon reaching the age of majority”–, Sánchez argued that the ceremony could be delayed for a few months until the new Cortes were constituted.
The opinions of some constitutional experts who endorsed this possibility then came to the fore, while others highlighted the symbolic value of the act in which the heiress assumes that, upon reaching the age of majority, she can already be declared queen if her father or regent dies. in the event that the Cortes recognized the temporary disqualification of the King.
The script twist and the electoral advance have changed the circumstances, but not the uncertainty. The Cortes that arose from the elections of July 23 will be constituted next Thursday, August 17, and, even in the hypothetical case of an electoral repetition, given the deadlines established by the Magna Carta, they would continue to be active on October 31. The question that is now being debated is whether there will be a new government by that date or whether, on the contrary, no candidate for president has passed the investiture and is already planning a repetition of the elections.
As of August 17, after the constitution of the Cortes, the King will receive the new president of Congress, who will give him the list with the spokesmen of the different political formations with parliamentary representation in order to be called to the Zarzuela. The round of consultations until the head of state proposes a candidate for the investiture can last until the first or second week of September. If the proposed candidate, in the first or second ballot, obtains a parliamentary majority, a new government could be formed at the beginning of October. La Zarzuela would have an interlocutor, and the swearing-in ceremony of the Princess's Constitution could be held, if so decided jointly, with the Parliament and the Government in full exercise of their functions, on the same day, October 31.
There is only one precedent of the ceremony: Felipe de Borbón swore the Constitution on the same day he turned 18. If the same scheme is followed, the act will be present, in addition to the Kings, the deputies and senators, in solemn and joint session, as well as the Government and representatives of the rest of the high State institutions, of the autonomous communities, diplomatic corps and other guests. The president of the Congress, as Gregorio Peces-Barba did in his day with Felipe de Borbón, will take an oath to the Princess of Asturias.
In the event that the first candidate proposed by the King does not pass the investiture, the two-month term would begin to run to propose a new candidate or, once the term is over, to call new elections. In these cases, the two-month period would exceed October 31, so that the Parliament would be in office on that day, but before its possible dissolution. In this scenario, although it is the President of Congress who is responsible for calling the Princess's oath, the political crisis, the foreseeable tension and the interim government in office would make holding a ceremony of such high symbolic and institutional value inadvisable. Eleanor should wait.
