King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain took part in the celebrations for National Armed Forces Day, which this year fell on Saturday, the 29th of May 2021. The main event, a military parade, was severely restricted due to Government restrictions in connection to the ongoing global health emergency. The only part of the traditional ceremony that was carried out more or less as normal was the hommage to those who gave their lives in the line of duty. This year, the function also commemorated those who died of coronavirus.
At around 11am on a beautiful Madrid day, The King and Queen arrived in Plaza de la Lealtad in a State vehicle, which kickstarted the event. Immediately after, the King reviewed the small contingent of troops from all branches of the military that was lined up, and then saluted the lineup of authorities who also took part in the ceremony, which included the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the President of the Madrid Community, the Mayor of the city and military authorities.
Following this, the actual commemoration took place, with the King laying a laurel wreath at the feet of the Memorial, while airplanes painted the sky above in red and yellow, the colours of the Spanish flag. After that, a small contingent of military personnel performed a 300m parade. The ceremony was then declared concluded, and King Felipe left Plaza de la Lealtad to go to the Military general headquarters to have some video calls with military units celebrating important milestones – Spanish media reported that he would talk to several contingents celebrating 100 years from their creation.
King Felipe was dressed in his Air Force uniform, while the Queen was wearing a pink coat dress and matching shoes. Both of them were sporting KN95 face masks, a black one for the King and a white one for the Queen – these are non-reusable, surgical-grade face masks. Their Majesties have rarely been seen without a face mask in the last fourteen months, especially for public events.
The commemorations were supposed to take place in Huesca, Aragona, but the pandemic has forced a change of plans and, for the second year in a row, the capital of Madrid was the centre of the attention. In 2020, the event had to be cancelled altogether, and King Felipe alone presided a small commemoration in the operation centre in the Retamares military base in Madrid. This year, despite the still reduced number of people in attendance, the Queen was present and the event resembled more what it would’ve been had coronavirus not entered our lives.
This event comes only one day after the Princess of Asturias received her confirmation, with a restricted number of people allowed to be present. Both the Princess and her sister, Infanta Sofìa, were supposed to attend Saturday’s ceremony, but coronavirus restrictions decided otherwise.
