The Princess of Asturias Current Events and News Thread

She is approachable and always greets people with friendliness and a smile, and she is only 18 years old... as is normal, she will learn to control these situations better over the years, but we are dealing with masses of people, these types of incidents always occur .



I really don't understand the need to take out of context and invent conclusions from a few seconds of images to which no one has given importance. I also don't understand certain comments that are too harsh against Leonor.

Toledo said:

When you navigate some of the links posted in here, and scroll to see messages in Spanish from some sectors in Spain, you'll read the amount of vitriol and violence directed toward all members of Felipe's family. One I saw yesterday, from a link in here toward a twitter board, had two senior ladies, approx in her 60s-70s spewing such anger toward Leonor you would think she was the incarnation of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini all at once. Most of it is recycled propaganda from extremist groups that hope to depose the government to install mini local dictators.
But the comments toward Leonor since she turned 18 are to incite aggression and she has to be protected 24/7 by anyone fixated to accomplish something by these violent groups we have from corner to corner.

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I had a sense that the criticism of Leonor and her future role might occur once the Princess reached adulthood. Sad to see that two elderly ladies seem to consider her in that manner.

TLLK said:

I had a sense that the criticism of Leonor and her future role might occur once the Princess reached adulthood. Sad to see that two elderly ladies seem to consider her in that manner.

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Did you saw them on the link too and understood the nonsense garbage they said about Leonor? These are senior persons still fuming and placing blame on Leonor now on living in a Spain that is not with a president pocketing public funds money. But to be precise, a lot of the anger against Felipe and Leonor is associated with the antics of her grandfather. As a comment said by the 2nd video, she says Leonor will be like him too because she's a branch out of the same tree.

That type of vitriol is the reason why she has to be with bodyguards at all times. Spain in general love, if not tolerate the monarchy, and in due time Leonor will have the chance to restore the respect to the institution that her grandfather tarnished.

Thanks for the video. I think it actually makes it worse. Because it seems these are "trusted" people as they were within the barricades not outside of it...perhaps they are community volunteers and all they seemed to want is to get a picture with the future Queen. It's a bad look to have security surround the princesses front and back less than a feet away and they couldn't touch Leonor. Strange.
Interestingly enough, I have seen photos of the King AND the Queen hug fans/people and they were able to reciprocate as some movements are instinctual.

lula said:

She is approachable and always greets people with friendliness and a smile, and she is only 18 years old... as is normal, she will learn to control these situations better over the years, but we are dealing with masses of people, these types of incidents always occur .

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I really don't understand the need to take out of context and invent conclusions from a few seconds of images to which no one has given importance. I also don't understand certain comments that are too harsh against Leonor.

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She carries a press accreditation, but she is not a regular journalist of the royal house information (they are in the background watching the scene with a certain look of surprise), she should still know the rules. The lady took advantage of the situation and was particularly insistent, and even though the head of protocol and another bodyguard asked her to keep her distance, she did not stop until she got the photo. She might be a controlled person, but she was having an erratic attitude.

In Spain the word bodyguard is literally "the one who guards your back", in the video you can see the way in which they enter the car backwards while bodyguards from behind protect the doors... at that moment, for that bodyguard who is doing his job, that woman's arm is only an obstacle if something happens and he has to grab the princess quickly.

Catalonia is a hostile territory for the Crown, where there are radical groups that can cause altercations and the security deployment was very important, even the King's own Head of Security was with them. After the recent incidents involving Trump or the President of Slovakia, that Carlos and Camilla had to be removed from an event due to a security breach or everything that happened with Amalia (who ended up living in Madrid protected by Spanish bodyguards) ... what surprises me is that it is about creating a big problem of an unimportant gesture that only seeks to guarantee security.

The security protocols of authorities in Spain are probably among the strictest in the world, because for many years security was the difference between being alive and being dead. Circumstances have changed, today the threats are different... but security remains very strict, for the Royal Family, for all members of the government or for any authority or public person that the Ministry of the Interior thinks is threatened.

Thanks lula, could you share some inside on how they are dealing with the 'hugging' topic in general as there are lots of photos of the King and Queen actively hugging people = wrapping arms around them, even on the other side of the fence. Nobody is removing an arm etc there. Letizia is a 'touchy' person in general, seems to like physical contact with people, and a royal has to be physically approachable anyway.

They have their protocols and generally when they greet crowds of people they go encapsulated between several bodyguards, they do not intervene unless they see that someone is overdoing it or has an object that could be dangerous. But it is impossible for a bodyguard to always act exactly the same, because precisely their job is to respond to each circumstance.

In this case, in the greeting line behind the fence there was no problem, you can see an older woman grab Leonor, the bodyguards stare at her but there is no movement. The problem arises at the end when the line breaks up and everyone repositions themselves to go towards the cars, this woman makes them stop and Leonor and Sofía's backs are left more unprotected.

lula said:

...Catalonia is a hostile territory for the Crown, where there are radical groups that can cause altercations and the security deployment was very important, even the King's own Head of Security was with them. After the recent incidents involving Trump or the President of Slovakia, that Carlos and Camilla had to be removed from an event due to a security breach or everything that happened with Amalia (who ended up living in Madrid protected by Spanish bodyguards) ...

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That reminded me India's president Indira Gandhi was killed by her very own guards, affiliated with antagonist groups. And many years ago a president of Mexico made the mistake of walking into the crowd to be completely surrounded and his assassin had only to get inside the group and aim the weapon to almost touching his head.
I'll rather have Leonor surrounded by guards these days than taking risks outside. Just think that without the two infantas the crown would go at some point to the king's notorious nephew, who is a clone of Grandpa Juan Carlos' behavior.
Keep Leonor safe!

After analyzing things from all angles and getting different perspectives, I have concluded that the removing the greeter's hand made no sense. Leonor and Sofia were completely surrounded by bodyguards. One even made way for woman to step next to Leonor, her hands were visible, and all she did was touch (not grab) Leonor and reciprocate the way one naturally does for a group picture.
No one would object or even bat an eye if it was an unsafe environment or if the woman "grabbed" Leonor. By the way, let's give her credit as well she is not a naive little girl but a smart young woman. Leonor was surrounded by security, she saw the woman respectfully ask for a photo op, and she obviously felt comfortable and safe enough to put her arms around the woman's shoulders. Removing her hand was simply uncalled for.

It was a bad look. I have concluded there was no logic. It seems it was that particular bodyguard and that had it been another bodyguard they would not have intervened.