KING Felipe has called on Spain to remember with “honour, gratitude and emotion” the soldiers who have died working for the country’s “united effort” for peace and stability. The monarch was speaking last Friday during the traditional Kings’ Day military parade, at the end of a week which thrust Spain’s worst peace-time military accident back into the headlines.
Felipe VI made no direct reference to the crash of the Yak-42 plane in Turkey in May 2003, despite the publication of a long-awaited reported earlier in the week which attributed blame to the Ministry of Defence.
The tragedy triggered lengthy legal battles between victims’ families and the Defence Ministry, but last week’s report from the State Council enquiry places blame on the ministry for the first time.
