For the first time in her capacity as president of the Balearics, Francina Armengol today attended the celebrations for Spain’s National Day in Madrid. The main ceremony, held in the Plaza Cánovas del Castillo, was presided over by King Felipe and Queen Letizia and was attended by Mariano Rajoy and other ministers from the national government as well as representatives from different regions of the country and from the armed and police forces. Following the act of paying tribute to the national flag and the military parade, President Armengol attended the official royal reception at the Palacio Real.
Not all the regions had presidential representation at the military parade. Neither Artur Mas of Catalonia nor Iñigo Urkullu of the Basque Country has ever attended, while Uxue Barkos of Navarre had another appointment, the meeting of the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.
Other presidents who attended for the first time were Emiliano García Page of Castile-La Mancha, Pedro Antonio Sánchez of Murcia, José Ignacio Ceniceros of La Rioja, Ximo Puig (Valencia), Javier Lambán of Aragon, Cristina Cifuentes (the Madrid community) and Fermando Clavijo of the Canary Islands. Guillermo Fernández Vera of Extremadura was returning, having been re-elected president; he previously held the post from 2007 to 2011. This was also the case with Cantabria’s Miguel Angel Revilla, though his previous period of office was from 2003 to 2007.