• Interview Ana Obregón's intention to have more grandchildren: "My son wanted to have five children"
  • Controversy The daughter of Ana Obregón is already registered in the registry: her name is Ana Lequio Obregón

Could Ana Sandra, granddaughter who is not the daughter of Antoñita the fantastic, that is, of Ana Obregón, become the first Queen of Spain born by surrogacy? Well, by proxy, it could, of course. As are the rules governing the functioning of our Monarchy, and given that there are enough black holes in the regulation of an issue as transcendental as succession to the throne, something like this could happen. It is true that for this newcomer to the world Ana Sandra to hold the Head of the Spanish State, many things would have to happen before, almost all of them very unfortunate. But installed as we are in this country of ours in a climate of astracanada that would delight if it still lived from Berlanga and that leaves as less and less original the exaggerated Almodóvar, why not think that the granddaughter of Obregón could rise in some dystopian future with the attributes and dignity corresponding to His Majesty the King or Queen of the Spains?

View this post on Instagram

As few readers will have overlooked, Ana Sandra is, as we finally know, granddaughter of Alessandro Lequio. And the count who hit the big ball in the cuché paper and that when he stopped having age and playboy works became a famous television talk show, would currently occupy a position around number 20 in the order of succession to the Spanish throne. What makes the little one follow him already in the more than unlikely chain.

Alessandro Lequio is the son of the late Alessandra Torlonia -first cousin of Juan Carlos I-. Who was the first granddaughter of King Alfonso XIII had a close relationship with the current Emeritus especially in the 50s and 60s, when they stayed so many times in his Palace in Rome. But to what it brings us here. You have to do a bit of a stilled genealogy. Sandra Torlonia was the eldest of the four children of the marriage formed by the Infanta Beatrice of Bourbon and Battenberg and Alessandro Torlonia, Prince of Civitella-Cesi.

Infanta Beatriz was the third child of Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg. She grew up in the Royal Palace of Madrid and, in 1931, with the proclamation of the Second Republic, like the rest of the members of the Royal Family she was forced to go into exile. The renunciations of the dynastic rights of her older brothers, Alfonso and Jaime, in 1933, placed her momentarily as second in the line of succession, behind her brother Don Juan, father of Juan Carlos I.

In order not to complicate things too much, let's say that once Don Juan married María de las Mercedes, and already with his own descendants, the Infanta Beatriz and her offspring – the one who would reach Alessandro Lequio and this girl Ana Sandra – would only move away from the first positions of the dynastic succession. In addition, Alessandra Torlonia had two brothers and, one of them, Marco, with his corresponding descendants... And in the semi-Salic law by which our dynasty is governed the male has preference over the woman in the same degree, which means that there are many candidates out there who we do not know of anything with preferential right to sit on the throne in front of the television count and his granddaughter.

View this post on Instagram

In April 1947, when Spain was under the yoke of the Franco dictatorship and no one could even imagine that a Bourbon would ever reign again, Don Juan published a Manifesto from Estoril in which, as Head of the Royal House that he was, he reminded the Caudillo that "the principles that govern the succession of the Crown, and that they are one of the basic elements of the legality on which the Traditional Monarchy is based, they cannot be modified without the joint action of the King and the Nation legitimately represented in Cortes". At that time, the list of dozens of members of the Bourbon dynasty, between men and women, who occupied their respective positions in the order of succession was well known. (Let's say that Juan Carlos I's sisters, Pilar and Margarita, resigned by marrying for themselves and their descendants, something that makes Ana Sandra much closer to the Palacio de Oriente.)

The Infanta Beatriz never renounced her dynastic rights in a formal act like that of her brothers. Although she would always say that she had taken resignation for granted at the time of marriage, since hers was a morganatic marriage. But another good imbroglio that even today would give for a great litigation is whether or not the pragmatics of Charles III of March 23, 1776 on unequal marriages really remained in force. If that were the valid interpretation, this tale would end, because neither Count Lecquio nor his granddaughter would have the remotest right to the throne.

Obregon's granddaughter certainly wouldn't have it easy. It would not be enough for the little girl, nobody wants it, to disappear the twenty descendants of Alfonso XIII who precede her. And this is because in Spain the Constitution of 1978 governs, which established the Monarchy as a political form of the State. But what occurred in the Transition was a reinstatement of the Crown, with some peculiarities. And, thus, article 57 of our Basic Law establishes that "the Crown of Spain is hereditary in the successors of HM Don Juan Carlos I of Bourbon, legitimate heir of the historical dynasty", and clarifies that "extinguished all the lines called in Law, the Cortes Generales will provide for the succession in the Crown in the way that best suits the interests of Spain".

The latter admits interpretations. But it means that, while Froilán, to put a case, would automatically become King of Spain if all the people who today precede him in the order of succession died, and nobody could cough at him – another thing is that, already under his reign, the Cortes were set in motion to disqualify him or to establish the Republic following the very complicated legal channels contemplated in the Magna Carta, if all the descendants of Juan Carlos I died and the Head of State had to be called, by their corresponding order, the members of other family lines connected with the dynasty, the Cortes Generales would have everything to say. And perhaps they would hit both Count Lequio and his granddaughter with the doors in their faces, if necessary.

What does put this astracanada back on the table are the legal holes that exist in Spain on the succession issue. Unlike what happens in almost all monarchies, here no one has to ask permission either from the King of the day or from the seat of national sovereignty to marry whoever they want and not lose their rights to the throne - they are only excluded if they marry against the express prohibition of the King and the Cortes Generales, That is, it has to be these parties to which they give to pronounce, not the other way around.

And our Constitution did not worry either, as in the other monarchies, that only the so-called legitimate children, the fruit of marriage, have rights to the throne. That is the way by which a girl like Ana Sandra, born of a surrogate womb, is in the line of succession, even if it is a little far, since it is enough to be the fruit of the frozen semen of a descendant of that Infanta Beatriz who knows what she would say if she raised her head today.

  • Juan Carlos I
  • Ana Obregon
  • Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y Borbón
  • Pedro Almodóvar
  • Articles Eduardo Álvarez

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more