Overview
- The government has expanded its official program to more than 200 commemorative activities with an initially announced budget of €20 million, framing the milestone as 50 years of freedom.
- The main ceremony is scheduled in the Congress of Deputies on Friday at 12:30, with King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía attending alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other state authorities.
- Juan Carlos I is not invited to the institutional events, with the Royal Household noting he does not participate in official activities of the Royal Family since his 2014 abdication and his move to Abu Dhabi in 2020.
- Leaders from Sumar and several left-wing and pro‑independence groups, including ERC, Junts, Bildu, Podemos and the BNG, say they will boycott the congressional act over the monarchy’s unresolved break with Francoism.
- Publication in France of Juan Carlos’s memoirs, which express respect for Franco and praise his intelligence and political sense, has drawn political reproach and reinforced Felipe VI’s earlier steps to distance the institution, including ending the emeritus’s allowance.