Press Interpreter

10/31/05 -- Madrid -- Princess Letizia gave birth early this morning, via cesarean section, to a baby girl in Madrid's Ruber Clinic. Around 12:30 p.m., the royal couple arrived * at the hospital to see their seventh grandchild. The birth of the first child of the Prince and Princess of Asturias, whose name is Leonor and who is second in the line of succession, reopens the debate over whether an urgent reform to the Constitution is necessary.

A few minutes before six o'clock in the morning, Prince Felipe appeared before the press, alongside doctor Luis Ignacio Recasens, to run through the details of the birth.

"This is the most beautiful thing that can happen to anyone in life," the Prince began, visibly emotional and with a permanent smile etched on his face during the speech. "To see your daughter's face for the first time, and the face of her mother in the process, is something exceptional."

According to what the daughter's father and Doctor Recasens have confirmed, Leonor was born by cesarean section at 1:46 a.m., after which the doctors ensured that the birth was complete. The baby girl weighed 3.54 kilograms and measured 47 centimeters long. Both mother and baby are doing fine, in a perfect state of health.

Prince Felipe stayed next to his wife during the cesarean, given that she was awake the whole time, and it was he who described the birth to the mother during the process.

Filled with tension, Felipe de Borbón recognized that he didn't even figure out the baby's gender when he held her in his arms for the first time. It was only later, when the nurses took the baby away to wash her, that the Prince asked, "But what is [she]?"

As for the baby's likeness, her father has so far only specified that the baby girl, "big and strong," has "traces of both [her parents]" at first sight. Her baptism will be after Christmas, and for the moment it's unclear who her godparents will be.

Regarding the choice of the baby's name, the Prince said that they settled on the name Leonor "because it has a lot of historical ties and because we liked it." The couple considered a number of possibilities, both boys' and girls' names, and only decided for sure at the last minute.

The infant Leonor received her first present around nine o'clock in the morning, a basket with little teddy bears, a pink blanket, and other small gifts. The present was from Miguel Primo de Rivera, one of Prince Felipe's friends.

The Prince's Call to Zapatero

The Casa Real** had published an official statement expressing its "great satisfaction" with the birth just minutes afterwards. Moreover, the Prince took it upon himself to make a personal call to the president of the government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Shortly afterward, the chief executive [Zapatero] called the King to express his "heartiest congratulations."

The Princess had been admitted to the Ruber Clinic a few minutes before 8 p.m. Sunday night. After more than five hours of uncertainty, the Zarzuela*** confirmed to the press through an SMS [cell phone text message] that it was not a false alarm and that Letizia was going into labor.

A little later, around two o'clock in the morning, Paloma Rocasolano, the Princess's mother, arrived at the Clinic. Dressed in white, riding in a gray Peugeot 206 driven by someone else, Rocasolano's arrival accelerated rumors of an imminent birth.

The paternal grandparents [the King and Queen] arrived at the Clinic around 12:30 p.m. to meet their seventh grandchild. Queen Sofía suspended the two official acts she had scheduled for this morning so that she could go to the hospital with King Don Juan Carlos.

Only a few minutes later, the father of the Princess of Asturias, Jesús Ortiz, and her grandmother, Menchu Alvarez del Valle, arrived at the Ruber to visit Letizia and the newborn.

The Constitution and the Order of Succession

The birth of Leonor de Borbón occurred after eight months and one week of pregnancy and just one day before the second anniversary of the [Prince and Princess's] engagement.

The newborn is the first child of the Prince and Princess of Asturias, married in Madrid on May 22, 2004. After Letizia Ortiz had spent almost a year adapting to her new "job," the Casa Real announced her pregnancy on May 8 of this year. Until today, the child's gender had been kept secret.

Leonor de Borbón, the seventh grandchild of the King and Queen of Spain — and the third girl — assumes the second place in the line of succession to the Throne, following her father, the Prince of Asturias.

Even though the Constitution establishes a preference for men over women in succession, for the moment it doesn't matter that the first child of the Prince and Princess of Asturias is a girl. Moreover, nothing would change if their future children were also female.

An issue could arise if, before the reform of Article 57.1 of the Constitution, which governs questions of succession, the Prince and Princess had a male child.

The Government has demonstrated that it intends to make four changes to the Constitution, including the order of monarchical succession. However, even with practically unanimous consensus on the subject, the mechanism that the Constitution itself establishes to reform its own Title II — which concerns the Crown — complicates matters.

Both the Congress and the Senate must approve the modification. Consequently, the Parliament would have to be dissolved and elections would have to be called in order for the new Parliament to approve the reform. Lastly, the reform would have to be submitted for a referendum.

After the announcement of Letizia Ortiz's pregnancy, the president of the Council of State, Francisco Rubio Llorente, assured that the changes could be implemented retroactively and apply to the firstborn even after the birth itself.

In any case, starting now, Leonor will be addressed as Her Royal Highness and will be the Infant of Spain, like her aunts Elena and Cristina de Borbón. Her name will be inscribed in the Civil Registry of the Royal Family by the Minister of Justice, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, accompanied by the Director General of Registries and Notaries.

When Leonor's parents become the King and Queen, she will receive the title of the 36th Princess of Asturias, making her the heir to the Throne. This marks the first time in more than a century that someone called to occupy the Spanish Throne has been born with democratic normality and parliamentary monarchy in place.

This is the fourth girl in the family circle of the Prince and Princess of Asturias. On her father's side, the youngest children of the two [prior] Infants, Elena and Cristina, are both girls. Victoria Federica, the eldest, was born on September 9, 2000, while her cousin Irene Urdangarín entered the world on June 5, 2005. On the side of Letizia Ortiz's family, her little sister, Erika, also has a little girl, Carla Vigo.

[Full Article]

*The source newspaper puts selected phrases in boldface type as a guide for readers. The boldface is preserved in this translation.

** Literally the "Royal House," the Casa Real is the organism directed by the King of Spain that assists him in his duties as the Head of State.

*** The Zarzuela is short for "Palacio de la Zarzuela," the residence of the Spanish royal family.

[This article appeared in the Spanish daily El Mundo]

By Charo Marcos and Olalla Cernuda

--Translated by Chris Drake

Go to original article:

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/10/31/espana/1130722695.html