Tuxedo jacket, blond hair pulled up in a bun and that sweet look that the Spanish can no longer do without. This portrait of Leonor of Spain, taken on the occasion of the last presentation of the Princess of Asturias prize, is on the cover of the next Vanity Fair Italian from December 4, 2024. The investigation devoted by the weekly to the daughter of King Felipe of Spain highlights the great challenges awaiting her. “Her mission is to rejuvenate the monarchy and make people forget the scandals. Will she succeed?” question journalists Paloma Simon and Monica Parga.
Their article attempts to answer this enigma by analyzing the polls and the official agenda of the future queen over the last twelve months, which has nothing to envy of that of a minister if we consider that the young woman is not twenty years old and is also pursuing intensive military training within the country's three army corps. Questioned for this investigation, the British journalist based in Madrid James Bradcock affirms that “the Spanish royal family found a talent in Leonor”. Another testimony, that of Pilar Gonzalez de Gregorio, who seems over time more “Juancarlist” than monarchist. The daughter of the Duchess of Medina Sidonia notes that within the aristocracy, Leonor only receives praise, “except from me, because I stay away from all that”.
While the double portrait of the Spanish sovereigns by Annie Leibovitz has just been unveiled in Spain, this publication on their daughter, on the front page of one of the most glamorous foreign magazines in the world, testifies to the still intact prestige of the monarchy and even soft power embodied by the royal family.
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