This morning, in Madrid's Plaza de Colón, the Presidents of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate, Meritxell Batet and Pilar Llop respectively, presided over the traditional raising of the Spanish flag to mark the 41st anniversary of the Constitution.
The raising of the national flag is the preamble to the annual 'Día de la Consitución' ceremony held in parliament in the presence of members of the government, led by acting Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, members of both the Congress and the Senate, regional presidents and representatives from leading state institutions and civil society organisations.
Joining the two parliamentary presidents at the flag-raising ceremony were members of various political parties, the Chief of Defence Staff, Fernando Alejandre Martínez, the Secretary General for Defence Policy, Juan Francisco Martínez Núñez, and the Police Commissioner for Madrid, Teodoro Pérez García, amongst others.
For the first time today, the ceremony was filmed by a police drone.
The Spanish flag now flying in the Plaza de Colón measures 300 square metres and weighs 35kg and was flown for the first time in 2001.
Before the flag was raised and to the tune of the Spanish national anthem played by the military band, the two parliamentary presidents inspected the troops, who paraded out again to close the ceremony.
