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29 March 2024

King of Spain: Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia ready to 'rule'

Published

Waving to crowds from the palace alongside his glamorous former newsreader wife, Spain's new king Felipe VI will take the crown Thursday hoping to help heal a crisis-stricken nation.

The blue-eyed 46-year-old, a former Olympic yachtsman just under two metres (six foot, six inches) tall, will stand in military uniform to swear an oath in parliament.

Pic: AFP

Felipe and his wife Letizia, 41 - dubbed Spain's first "middle class" queen - will then wave from the balcony of Madrid's Royal Palace and entertain 2,000 guests at a reception.

Pic: AFP

Overall, it will be a relatively sober ceremony in keeping with Spain's crisis spending cuts, with no foreign dignitaries invited.

Then Felipe must turn his mind to the job: modernising the monarchy as the head of a state wearied by recession, corruption and separatist tensions.

Pic: AFP

Felipe VI has been groomed for this moment since he was a boy. It is Spain's first royal succession since the monarchy was re-established in 1975.

Pic: Getty Images

He ascends the throne with rising popularity despite scandals that have blackened the reputation of his abdicating father Juan Carlos and elder sister Cristina.

"Felipe seems very well-prepared to govern," said passer-by Enrique Martin, 71, strolling in the sunshine near the Royal Palace.

Pic: AFP

"He is a young lad, with young ideas. He has an enormous responsibility but I think he will do as his father did: try to be the king of all the Spanish. I am sure he will manage it."

Pic: AFP