The October 12 military parade in Madrid experienced heavy rains as protagonists of a day where the distance between the public and the stand prevented the boos of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, from being heard in the area designated for the authorities where the flag was raised. The weather even forced Felipe VI and the Princess of Asturias to temporarily abandon their seats during part of the parade in the presence of the government with some absences, including that of Minister Sira Rego, by decision taken jointly with Izquierda Unida.
Shortly before nine o’clock in the morning, several hundred people gathered in the vicinity of Cibeles with flags and, those who did not carry them, bought them from street vendors waiting at the doors of the Banco de España metro. The occasional shouts of “Viva España!” » They were overshadowed by the morning’s topic of conversation: the rains that broke out less than an hour later.
The authorities’ tribune was located in the Plaza de Neptuno, a few meters from the Congress of Deputies and at a considerable distance from the public. Around ten thirty in the morning the regional presidents appeared and, with them, the socialist Salvador Illa: the first president of the Generalitat of Catalonia to attend this event in the last 14 years. In terms of absences, several members of the government did not attend the parade, such as the Minister of Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero – who is injured – and the head of Equality, Ana Redondo . The Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, was not present after deciding “with the Izquierda Unida organization,” her team said, according to Andrea García.
Shortly before ten thirty in the morning, Defense already announced the cancellation of any element of the parade linked to the air: neither the fighters, nor the helicopters, nor the Águila Patrol would leave. Since early in the morning, the experts had set the cloud height of 4,000 meters as the red line, but the rains settled the debate and it was also not possible to launch the parachutist.
The key moments of the military events of October 12 coincided with the heaviest rains in the center of Madrid: the arrival of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, a few moments before his arrival at the Royal House, and at the time of the lifting of the flag, during which we also paid tribute to the members of the armed forces who died during this year.
The rain also restricted the ability of political representatives to make statements, just as the shouts and whistles upon the arrival of the Prime Minister were barely perceptible in the distance. The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo, limited himself to a generic congratulation on his account on the social network, so ask for forgiveness.
On this same social network, Podemos declared that October 12 “is not a reason for pride” because it “commemorates” a “genocide” and asks that this National Day be celebrated on October 15, in memory of the May 15, 2011, date on which a movement of “indignants” filled the squares of dozens of Spanish cities shouting “They do not represent us”.
At the regional level, the pats on the back of Emiliano García-Page to Salvador Illa before starting the parade also marked a harmonious presence of the regional presidents, some of them, like Fernando López Miras, presenting themselves in front of the flag before take a seat in the stand. Isabel Perelló also attended her first ceremony on October 12 as president of the body of judges in the main stand.
With a more institutional profile than usual, Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso also appeared. “Since I have been president of the Community, I have never had rain, but I am happy because in the end it is also good for the campaign and for everything, so it does not matter if you have a small umbrella and you take advantage of it,” she said.
The parade experienced a moment of uncertainty when the rain became particularly violent and the kings even got up from their seats in the main stand before the infantry units began their march announced by a barely audible public address system due to the sound of rain and noise. the fountain of Neptune. The Killo ram of the Legion and the 210 horsemen who paraded down one of the main thoroughfares of the capital on one of the rainiest days that those present on October 12 remember.
