The kings preside over the October 12 parade with Ceuta and the electoral advance as a backdrop

This Monday, Madrid once again became the showcase of the Armed Forces during the October 12 parade in a celebration marked by the electoral advance and the crisis in Ceuta on the eve of the historical visit of the kings to the autonomous city.

The monarchs, Felipe and Letizia, together with Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, have presided over the traditional parade for the National Holiday in which nearly 4,400 soldiers, 144 vehicles, 39 motorcycles, 50 airplanes and 32 helicopters have participated. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has once again been received with insults and boos in a scene that has already become common every 12-O. But this year the political reading of an event that every year transcends the military character to reflect the state of the country is even more inevitable: the celebration takes place seven weeks before the appointment with the polls.

The Chief Executive arrived a little early but decided to wait in the car for four minutes until at eleven o'clock he came out to receive the kings and greet the rest of the political authorities. The first greetings were to the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, precisely two of the toughest PP leaders in the confrontation with Sanchismo. Even so, it did not prevent the "Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch" from being heard that several citizens uttered and that were repeated when the President of the Government left the military parade.

For the first time, the kings have invited representatives of civil society from Ceuta and Melilla to the reception at the Royal Palace, an unusual initiative that they already did with those affected by DANA and those affected by the La Palma volcano and that this year they do in solidarity with the Ceuta population, who suffered the massive entry of more than 80,000 immigrants more than two months ago and from which they have not yet recovered. No setback has marred this year's celebration: the weather has been kind and the air and ground parades have taken place normally. First Corporal José Antonio Lago Rubio, with more than 12,500 parachute jumps behind him, has been in charge of displaying the Spanish flag in the 2026 parade, as he did in 2011, after the military honors to the kings. The debut of the Legion's Babieca goat has been one of the main novelties of this year. It was also the first time that the 8x8 Dragon combat vehicles participated in the October 12 parade.

Precisely at the moment of honoring the kings, Princess Leonor starred in one of the anecdotes of this October 12, when she dropped the insignia of the Golden Fleece. The heir to the throne stopped to pick it up and put it in her pocket to later stage the complicity with her father Felipe VI, who placed it once on the platform.

In the middle of the electoral climate, the President of the Government was accompanied by 18 of the 22 members of the Council of Ministers, since the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, was absent; the Minister of Health, Mónica García; the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy; and the Minister of Children and Youth, Sira Rego. On the opposition side, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, attended along with his parliamentary spokesperson, Ester Muñoz. However, for the second consecutive year, the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has decided not to attend and has celebrated the day of the National Holiday in Ceuta together with his French "ally", the ultra-conservative of the National Group, Jordan Bardella.

From the autonomous city, minutes after the end of the parade, Abascal justified his decision: "I did not want to share a platform with this traitorous Government. On a day like today, I could only be in Ceuta. We cannot be celebrating National Day quietly in a context of invasion of a part of our territory," he defended. The Ceuta crisis has been the protagonist of the political panorama since last July 30, but this 12-O has taken on special relevance due to its proximity to the trip of the kings to the autonomous city. Felipe VI wanted to give it such importance and stopped during the greeting to the authorities to talk with the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, and his counterpart in Melilla, Juan José Imbroda.

Almost all the regional representatives have attended the celebration, except those of Navarra -María Chivite- and Andalusia -Juan Manuel Moreno- due to agenda reasons and the traditional absence of the Lehendakari of the Basque Country, Imanol Pradales. Nor have members of the Catalan independence parties, ERC and Junts, nor Bildu, been seen, as well as representatives of Podemos, who only attended when they were part of the Executive. The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, has broken with the usual tradition of nationalist presidents and, as he did last year, has attended the parade.