A deluge like few people remember marked the morning of the national holiday of October 12 in the center of Madrid. So much so that there were sometimes fears that the parades of all troops would be canceled, even those of the land units of the Armed Forces.
This monumental downpour allowed the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to avoid the predictable whistles and boos of a much smaller audience than in other years, who came to the vicinity of the Paseo del Prado to enjoy the military parade. As the morning progressed and the precipitation increased, affecting most of the guests, it was decided to cancel the Air Force Air Show.
So, in 2023, the flypast they were going to participate in did not take place. 85 planes, nor the pass of the Águila patrol, which draws the Spanish flag in the sky of Madrid every year.
In the same way, the jump from Parachute Acrobatic Patrol (PAPEA) of the Air and Space Force, descending to a stop with the flag of Spain.
However, the extreme situation caused by the storm, even though the parade was ruined, made it a memorable event. The soldiers continued to advance stoically, many of them in shirt sleeves, despite the level at which they were fighting.
The parade barely lasted for an hour and a quarter, of very short duration for what usually extends the military parade on October 12. All units ran at the same pace, which is also unusual, since each army detachment has its own march.
The Legion contingent, for example, with the sheep Killo in the lead, moved at the same speed as the rest of his companions, in the same way as the Regular Groups, whose pace is usually slowed. Legionnaires generally advance 160 steps per minute, a higher pace than the rest of the training (124 steps per minute). This year, everyone walked at the same pace.
Since he became President of the Government in 2018, Pedro Sanchez He has not known a single peaceful October 12th. Whistles, boos and serious protocol errors marked each national holiday.
This Saturday, Sánchez had to appear in the center of Madrid in front of thousands of people during the parade of the armed forces, after seven days in which he was the target of the corruption scandals that haunt those around him (Begoña Gomez) as well as the one who was his right arm within the PSOE (Jose Luis Abalos). Furthermore, a few days later, the revelation of the scheme to deduct years of prison time from ETA prisoners took place.
One more year, they were heard whistles and boos against the president, even if they were weaker than on other occasions. The public was located in the distance, about 200 meters from the stand towards the Paseo de Recoletos or below, towards the Atocha station.
Despite everything, the cries against the head of the Executive were heard both upon his arrival at the royal gallery, three minutes before the Kings, and at the end. Also during the salute to the commanders of the different units who participated in the parade.
The protest, however, was even more modest than last year, when the Defense Ministry decided to change the location of the parade. Until 2023, the first years of the Sánchez government took place in front of the Santiago Bernabéu, on Paseo de la Castellana. There, the beeps increased from year to year. On October 12, during the opening of this new place, the public was distanced from the authorities, and with it the boos received by the President of the Government.
Threat of cancellation
However, the rain dispersed the public and forced all authorities to bring out hundreds of umbrellas to ward off the heavy rain. There were times when the showers reached such dimensions that the Water seeped into the stands, wetting Queen Letizia, who moved elsewhere.
At that time, half of the contingent of 4,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces had already passed. There, when the rain became more intense, it was possible to see how the Chief of Defense Staff (JEMAD), Admiral Teodoro López-Calderón, was debating with the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, with King Felipe VI and with the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, on the suspension or not of the rest of the military parade.
Eventually the rain subsided and the parade was able to finish without any complications other than a historic downpour.
Sánchez, who wore a hooded raincoat when he received the monarch, found an unexpected ally in the weather. According to forecasts, rain could mark the day and affect public attendance. Defense, for example, had already planned to cancel the flypast if conditions were unfavorable, which ultimately happened.
In the authorities’ gallery, sheltered under umbrellas and raincoats, one could see the “president” of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, the first ‘president’ autonomous community that has attended the event for a decade and a half since the days of José Montilla.
He was also accompanied by the president of the Community, Isabel Diaz Ayusoand the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martinez Almeida, like other regional presidents and political leaders like Alberto Núñez Feijoo. The PP leader praised “the pride of being Spanish” and the “common culture” forged with the “brothers of Latin America”.
