Princess Leonor: Two Military Sanctions and a 170-Euro Meal in Zaragoza

Two sanctions for tardiness at the military academy and a 170-euro bill

On Pedro Cerbuna Street number 9 in Zaragoza, there is a chair with a name. The bar El Tuno, according to information published by El Nacional.cat, reserves it for Princess Leonor of Spain, and photos of hers are already displayed in the establishment. The same report puts the cost of her August hangout with friends at 170 euros: pizzas, burgers, broken eggs, and sandwiches, accompanied by Cokes and water bottles, shared among twelve people. Tapas, portions, sandwiches, and salads at a student bar with bravas potatoes for three euros.

This table has become the center of a discussion mixing three unrelated issues: the private conduct of an eighteen-year-old girl, the cost of the Crown, and the reliability of the source. Underlying it all is an uncomfortable question: how much of this is news and how much is summer gossip?

What the reports say about the sanctions at the military center

According to this account, Princess Leonor was sanctioned twice for arriving late to the military academy. The same source claims the center rejected Queen Letizia's request for weekly reports on her daughter's behavior, noting that the princess's outings are becoming more frequent and that her parents are concerned. These assertions remain unconfirmed by the Royal Household or the Ministry of Defense.

The issue then splits into two camps. Some accept the story as a sign of lack of control; others recall that this media outlet has published unverified claims about the Crown, arguing that the core of the scandal is merely a meal. One analysis concludes that if the news is simply that a teenager eats pizza with friends, there is no news. Another argues the problem is not the pizza, but that a future head of state bypasses rules that would create a record for any other cadet.

It is no minor detail that the age of majority has entered the equation: the princess is no longer a minor over whom decisions can be made from La Zarzuela, making every nighttime outing easier to report and harder to manage.

El Tuno: bravas for three euros and burgers for six

The bar is no journalistic discovery: it is a neighborhood spot catering to university students, with prices matching its clientele. Bravas potatoes for three euros, burgers for about six euros, a weekend atmosphere, and a terrace full of young people. The princess's status as a regular, with her own chair and photos on the wall, turns an ordinary bar into a showcase for the life of a royal family.

Here lies the paradox. The establishment boasts about having the neighborhood's most famous customer, the customer pays her share like anyone else, and the result is a conflict between one girl's privacy and the public interest in the institution she will one day lead. A regular bar, in practice, with an acompañante at the door.

How much does the Royal Household cost?

When the conversation shifts to the monarchy, the figure that repeatedly appears, cited by a debate participant, is the budget: 7 million euros per year against approximately 500,000 million in State Budgets. The recurring argument is about scale: cutting the Royal Household saves money on minor expenses, but the real problem lies elsewhere.

The counterargument comes in two directions. First, the allocated budget does not cover the full cost of the institution, as items such as security, travel, and maintenance are covered by other administrations and thus do not appear in the cited figure. Second, the balance sheet must include the past: controversies surrounding the former king and his exit to foreign countries continue to serve as ammunition in any discussion about the Crown.

Spanish Income Tax Compared with Brazil, the UK, Germany, and the US

Another axis of discontent is fiscal, antiestéticaturing concrete figures, though they come from a participant sharing his own case: a 26-27% income tax rate paid in Spain, compared to the 27% he would pay in Brazil, 40% in the United Kingdom, 42% in Germany, and 24% in the United States, with a marginal rate rising for high incomes up to a cap of 182,100 dollars. The comparison is used to conclude that conditions here are not as bad as claimed, or conversely, that fiscal pressure rises without visible improvement in services.

The detailed breakdown by brackets and countries reveals surprising differences, especially when crossed with the cost of maintaining a head of state. It is the type of comparison each side constructs to their advantage, and its utility lies precisely in showing the framework, not the conclusion.

Of age, with an acompañante, and immune to expulsion

There is an uncomfortable consensus among opposing views: the princess is of age and cannot be suspended or expelled from the center, so any reprimand remains disciplinary without visible consequences. Added to this is a material detail that also recurs: permanent acompañante by armed agents and multiple security rings make any spontaneous approach impossible. For a girl of her age, analyses agree, this is more of a sentence than a privilege.

The underlying clash is generational. Those who defend that eighteen-year-olds make mistakes and that adult pressure explains the delays face those who argue the institution cannot afford the spectacle. In the middle lies the old question of whether this is a problem for the Royal Household or an excuse to discuss something else.

Among all the circulating figures—the 170 euros of the meal, the 7 million annual budget, the 26-27% income tax rate—the one that bothers most is none of them. It is that the chair with her name remains in a Zaragoza bar, generating more conversation than the budget of the institution she will one day lead.