Las Palmas hosted its second royal visit in just one week with the arrival of the heir to the Spanish throne, Princess Leonor, albeit not for the usual type of occasion.
The Crown Princess is currently serving in the Spanish navy as part of her preparation to eventually succeed her father King Felipe as the country’ monarch. Over the past two years, Leonor has been undergoing training at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza and later this year will begin Air Force training at the General Air Academy in Santiago de la Ribera to round out her military education.
Having spent five months at sea on the navy’s Juan Sebastián Elcano training ship, Leonor returned to the Gran Canaria capital briefly to join the guided missile frigate Blas de Lezo, departing on the warship late on Saturday to take part in the live-ammunition Sinkex-25 exercises off the Canary Islands. After that, she is expected to join the Dédalo Battle Group on NATO exercises until early July.
The presence of Princess Leonor in Las Palmas inevitably generated keen expectation, with media on hand to film her boarding the frigate in full uniform and saluting her new commanding officer, Captain Pedro Ramos Carbonell, and other senior officers.
Leonor was in the headlines in May when it was revealed that the Royal Family had launched legal action to protect her privacy following the publication of photographs of her enjoying free time from the training ship on a stop-over in Chile.
It is alleged that a staff member responsible for monitoring a well-known shopping centre’s security cameras granted a Chilean media outlet access to the images, prompting an official complaint by the Spanish Embassy in Santiago.
