The King, accompanied by Queen Letizia, led a solemn ceremony in which tribute was paid to the class that accompanied him in 1984, when his military training was completed.
Chance has it that Felipe VI sets an example for Princess Leonor once again. The Head of State met this Saturday with his promotion from the General Military Academy, the XLIV, to renew her Flag oath, when 40 years have passed since she first kissed the national flag whose shield the queen had woven Maria Cristinawidow of Alfonso XII, great-great-grandfather of Felipe VI. It is the same flag that she kissed in 2010, when 25 years passed since her first swearing-in, and to which the Princess of Asturias pledged loyalty last October after entering the General Military Academy.
It was half an hour after eleven in the morning when Kings Felipe and Letizia arrived at the patio of ‘la General’, where the cadets were already waiting in formation, among whom was Princess Leonor, and Don Felipe’s 200 classmates. Each one of them arranged in a corner of the access plaza to the Academy. Felipe VI, in the uniform of a captain general, was received by the general director of the Academy, Manuel Pérez López, companion as well as promotion of Don Felipe, who also swore the flag this Saturday.
The Kings were placed in the authorities’ box to receive military honors and, then, Felipe VI reviewed troops to join their peers in formation. He then gave way to the rejuration ceremony. Don Felipe, as happened during his first swearing-in and on the 25th anniversary, was the first to kiss the national flag amid applause from those present and before the gaze of his daughter, who is in her first year of military training at the General. . The father has become, by example, his daughter’s best guide.
Princess Leonor did not take a place with her parents and has remained in the same place as the 800 cadets with whom she shares the Academy, placed in formation to follow the event from the central patio. A protocol fact that has been repeated in the different events that father and daughter have shared since the Princess of Asturias began her military training.
Miguel Ángel Cano Rodrígueza soldier in the reserve and professor of Protocol, explains to EL MUNDO what the rejuration ceremony entails: “The veteran classes meet in the Parade Ground of the Academy to renew their oath of fidelity to the Flag. They do it with the heart full of emotion, before the same Flag that they kissed in their youth, and they do it in the company of the new promotions, thus creating a deep bond with the “Spirit of the General.” For the promotions that renew their oath, it is the reunion. with their classmates, to once again feel the camaraderie and complicity they shared during their training, but it is also the time to remember those who are no longer among them.
Furthermore, the XLVI promotion is quite special, since everyone who was part of it is still active. The acts of rejuration are usually held in a fairly familiar environment, but that condition and the presence of the monarch, logically, has enhanced the magnitude of the event. This generation stood out in the Transition stage, specifically in its deployment in the Bosnian War, under the mandate of the UN blue helmets and later NATO.
These 200 companions, under the watchful eye of the monarch, one by one, have been kissing the flag to reaffirm their commitment to Spain. Among them. The widows of the nine deceased members of the class have also sworn in, among whom are the colonel of engineers, José Manuel Júdez Alejandre, and a commander of the Civil Guard who died in an act of service.
After the oath, Lieutenant General Francisco Javier Marcos Izquierdo, proclaimed a speech in which he highlighted the importance of maintaining the commitment to Spain and recalled some of the moments they experienced in Zaragoza when they were completing their training. “I remember those Saturday afternoons when, after overcoming the challenges of the week, we went to Zaragoza to disconnect and have a good time.” In his statement he addressed the cadets to take an example from their promotion and expressed that “each of our kisses has been engraved on the flag of Spain forever.”
The director of the General Military Academy, Manuel Perez Lopezalso spoke a few words in that sense, in which he highlighted the value of the class of 1984.
To conclude the event, tribute was paid to the fallen and the cadets paraded to the sound of the Academy anthem.
Felipe VI preferred not to take a major role in the event, which is why, at the end of the event, he left the central patio without making a speech.
