There is no need to overstate the special significance that the Princess of Asturias Awards hold for the Spanish royal family. Since King Felipe’s adolescence, it has been the event that is placed at the service of the heirs to the Crown so they may take their first steps in exercising their constitutional duties. Moreover, it is celebrated in the land of Queen Letizia, a noteworthy detail. Not even Queen Sofía, with a logically reduced official schedule, misses them.
In recent editions, changes have been announced regarding the involvement of the various members of the royal family in the Princesses of Asturias Awards agenda. Logical, since the heir to the throne is reaching adulthood and taking on more tasks. In this edition, Princess Leonor will for the first time receive the laureates alone, without the presence of King Felipe and Queen Letizia or her sister, Infanta Sofía, at the Hotel La Reconquista in Oviedo.
Both in 2024 and 2025, King Felipe announced in his laudatory and closing speech of the Princess of Asturias Awards that Leonor de Borbón would take his place the following year. “The princess, at every step, shows new signs of maturity and sensitivity, with a more active role in public life,” the monarch stated last year. “It is up to me, I think, to begin handing over this space to her.” This did not happen, although last year it was Leonor who handled the traditional royal speech in the Pueblo Ejemplar, and not her father.
Princess Leonor, in her first speech at the Princess of Asturias Awards, in 2019.
Rumor has it that, at long last, Leonor would be in charge of delivering the closing speech of the Princess of Asturias Awards each year since she reached adulthood: she was 18 when her father first attended Oviedo alone and delivered the closing speech. It is a matter that, as revealed by Teresa Sanjurjo, director of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, is discussed annually within the family and does not get resolved until the official program is released. In this edition, if there are no surprises, we will continue to have King Felipe’s speech and a few words beforehand from the heir. Written, by the way, by herself.
The evolution of the Borbón-Ortiz firstborn at the lectern of the Teatro Campoamor becomes evident each year. In fact, the first leak from Carlos III University, where she studies Political Science, precisely refers to her talent as a speaker. It seems the heiress stands out in the subject Expression Strategies, evidence that at home, surely with Queen Letizia as teacher, she has meticulously rehearsed her speeches. “She’s more than capable,” read the headlines about Leonor’s oratory.
Princess Leonor, at the Princess of Asturias Awards 2020.
Leonor’s first official speech occurred at the Princess of Asturias Awards in 2019, at the age of 13, the same as her father. “Today is a very important day in my life that I have awaited with great excitement,” she began her speech, in which she gave a special thanks to her grandmother, Queen Sofía. In 2020, chronicles praised that she spoke more calmly, though her words were more grave: she remembered the victims of the pandemic and defended the importance of solidarity.
“I am almost fifteen years old,” declared Leonor, who was debuting her first low heels. “I follow very closely, like many children and youths my age, what happens in our country. And after having spent months without going to school, returning to class showed us that we must adapt to these new circumstances, always with the hope that everything will improve.” In 2021 she landed in Oviedo from Wales, where she was completing her first year of Bachillerato: “I will return soon to my studies with the memory of another awards ceremony that moves us and touches us.”
Princess Leonor, during the speech she gave in 2023.
With increasing ease and maturity, Leonor announced at the 2022 Princess of Asturias Awards: “In a few days I will turn 17. And I assure you that discovering the work of our laureates helps me understand better the world around us. Their work pushes me, actually all of us, to keep learning.” In 2023, coinciding with her initiation into military training at the Zaragoza Academy, her words took on a new gravitas.
“I understand very well and I am aware of what my duty is and what my responsibilities entail,” she said about her future, which she defined as “a life of service with great demands and personal sacrifices.” At the 2024 ceremony, Leonor’s speech cited Juan Manuel Serrat and once again declared her love for Asturias: “A land not only linked to a title and all that it entails, but the land of my maternal family; a land in which I am very happy.” Last year, she paid a tribute to Infanta Sofía: “Complicit sisters are our great allies and companions on our journey.”
