Crown Princess Leonor of Spain will follow in her father King Felipe’s footsteps as she begins three years of military training in September.
King Felipe VI’s eldest daughter, who turns 18 in October, will attend the Spanish Army’s General Military Academy in the northeastern city of Zaragoza for the 2023-24 school year, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said.
The heir to the Spanish throne will then spend a year at a naval school in northwestern Galicia and a year at an air force school in the southeastern region of Murcia, the minister told a news conference.
The Royal Palace said he “must undergo military training like his father, His Majesty the King, and like in other parliamentary monarchies,” Robles said.
“In recent years, we have made significant efforts to recruit women into the armed forces,” he added.
Princess Leonor is expected to complete her International Baccalaureate degree at the end of May after two years of boarding at UWC Atlantic College in Wales.
If he follows in his father’s footsteps, after military training he will attend a university in Spain and complete a master’s degree abroad.
King Felipe studied law at Madrid’s Complutense University and then earned a master’s degree in international relations at Georgetown University in Washington.
Spain’s Royal Palace said it was “a widely observed and shared tradition in European parliamentary monarchies that future heads of state develop a military career.”
The statement noted that under the Spanish constitution, Princess Leonor will be the head of the armed forces when she ascends the throne. (Web Desk/AFP)
