Overview
- Felipe VI bestowed the Order of the Golden Fleece on Queen Sofía, former prime minister Felipe González, and constitutional jurists Miquel Roca and Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón at the Royal Palace.
- In a roughly 12‑minute speech, the King hailed the Transition as a “revolutionary political gesture,” highlighted the 1978 Constitution, and portrayed the Crown as a stabilizing force.
- Juan Carlos I did not receive an invitation to the institutional acts and is expected at a strictly private family lunch at El Pardo on Saturday.
- Organizers replaced a joint solemn sitting of Congress and Senate with an academic session in the Congress’s Sala Constitucional to reduce political friction.
- Several parties, including EH Bildu, PNV, ERC, Podemos, Junts, Sumar and Vox, announced they would not attend the congressional event, as top state authorities turned out for the palace ceremony.