Leonor: The Princess of Asturias will begin three years of military training in the Armies in August | Spain | The USA Print

The Princess of Asturias, who will turn 18 on October 31, will begin her military training this August. The heiress to the Crown will spend three years in the academies of the Army (Zaragoza), the Navy (Marín) and the Air Force (San Javier), where she will prepare to assume her position as Supreme Commander of the Forces in the future Armed Forces, which the Constitution attributes to the Head of State.

This is established by the royal decree with the itinerary of the military training of the Princess of Asturias, which this Tuesday was approved by the Council of Ministers and presented by the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles. With this decision two unknowns are cleared up: if Mrs. Leonor de Borbón was going to study three years in the academies, as her father did, or if she was going to design a customized program of shorter duration; And if she was going to postpone military training until she finished her university studies. The answer is that the heir to the throne will follow the same program and in the same order as Felipe VI, three years of military training and then the university degree and postgraduate degree.

The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the military itinerary of Doña Leonor, e, which will begin in August or September of this year, once she concludes her studies in Wales, with her admission to the General Military Academy of Zaragoza; She will follow another annual course at the Marín Naval School (Pontevedra), the year in which she will embark on the training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano, and will finish at the General Air Academy, in San Javier (Murcia), where he will complete his military training, after three courses. The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, has detailed that Doña Leonor will be the head of her promotion and that she will receive military training “as heir to the throne, as occurs in all parliamentary monarchies.” At the end of it, the successor in the crown will be a lieutenant in Land and Air, and a lieutenant in the Navy.

Doña Leonor de Borbón, who is completing her second year of Baccalaureate at the UWC Atlantic College in Wales (United Kingdom), will begin her military career in Zaragoza, where she will wear the uniform of the center and where she will carry out the first year until graduation. swears allegiance, but then continues with the second course in this same center, explained the minister. She is she has explained that “a specific and adjusted itinerary” has been prepared for the tasks that are expected to be carried out in the future by the Princess of Asturias today. In the second year of her training, Doña Leonor will join the third year of the Marín Naval School, in Pontevedra, and she will also embark on a round-the-world trip on the training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano, a tradition in the case of the Spanish Royal Family. In the third year, the daughter of Felipe VI will take the fourth year at the General Air and Space Academy in San Javier. It is a military itinerary very similar to that of her father, the King.

Robles has specified that the Princess of Asturias will be the head of her promotion, once her training is completed, and will go up as she does, although she will not occupy a position. The head of Defense has also congratulated herself on the fact that in the future Spain will have a woman at the head of the Armed Forces since the head of state is also their captain general. She will start the first military course as a minor. Robles has specified that the Princess of Asturias, “as heir to the throne, has constitutional functions, among which is the supreme command of all the armed forces, for which reason military training is essential, as in all parliamentary monarchies” , has specified.

Article 2 of the 2007 Military Career Law stipulates that the Government has the power to determine by royal decree the training received by the Princess of Asturias “taking into account the demands of her high representation and her status as heir to the Crown ”. Precisely what the Council of Ministers has done today has been to approve this royal decree. “Military training in Spain is of a very high level”, stressed the minister.

Minister Robles has said that Felipe VI “had a special interest” in that the military training of the princess “be done as quickly as possible” once they finished their high school studies. “This is magnificent news because it highlights the normal functioning of the institutions”, pointed out the Defense Minister, who recalled that the Constitution assigns the head of state the supreme command of the Armed Forces.

Princess Leonor joined the Atlantic College of uwc, the educational center located 26 kilometers from the city of Cardiff (United Kingdom), where this year he finished his second year of the International Baccalaureate. The cost has been 76,000 euros, paid with money from the annual allocation of the Kings in the General State Budget. Like his father, when he finishes his military training, he will leave with the rank of lieutenant for Infantry and Air, while he will be a lieutenant in the Navy, offices that were granted to Felipe VI in July 1989 after passing, between September 1985 and July 1988, by the three Spanish military academies. The King is also a helicopter pilot, “with aptitude for instrumental flight in the 402 Squadron of the Air Forces of the Air Force,” according to his official biography.