The decision of the Monarch to abdicate in his son Felipe is, without a doubt, one of the most important political events in the democratic history of Spain. One cannot fail to recognize the commitment to democracy and the rights and freedoms of ¿all Spaniards" that Don Juan Carlos has demonstrated throughout his reign. Although the monarchy is not a democratic institution, the new times force it to respond to changes in order to survive and continue to exercise the power of political stability. The decisive impulse of the Crown in the reconciliation of Spaniards in democracy must now be completed with the elimination of the prevalence of men over women in the order of succession, effectively applying the equal rights established by our legal system. The Salic law contained in the 1978 Constitution -which does not respond to the historical tradition prior to the Bourbon dynasty- has become obsolete and needs to be reformed in order to be able to cope with the succession of Prince Felipe. Spain is the only major European monarchy that maintains the male preference to accede to the throne. Following last year's reform in the United Kingdom, only the principalities of Monaco and Lichtenstein maintain discrimination against women in the succession to the throne.

In Spain, a reform, which neither the two major parties nor the Royal Household have so far considered urgent, is long awaited. The latter recalled that the infanta Leonor was, for the moment, the firstborn of the Princes of Asturias, but not the heir. Proclaimed King Felipe, the Infanta will be Princess of Asturias.

The mechanism to carry out the change in tradition is anything but simple. Contrary to the supposed ease with which a agreement between the majority parties allowed in 2011 the express reform of the Magna Carta to impose a ceiling of expense, the change in the succession would have to be made under the figure of the "procedure aggravated", because it affects the Crown or the definition of the State. The legal framework would imply a agreement of the two-thirds majority of the congress and the Senate, the dissolution of the Cortes, the election of new ones to elaborate the reform and the calling of a referendum to ratify the new rule. The legislators also fear that reforming the succession-an aspect in which everyone would agree in principle to agreement- would open a constitutional battle, especially on territorial issues or the organization of the State. This whole process of enquiry could end up becoming a plebiscite about Monarchy yes or Monarchy no, a question in which for the moment few would want to enter. However, what will be the third constitutional reform (the first one referred to the exercise of the right of suffrage of foreigners in municipal elections, in 1992, to adapt the Constitution to a requirement of the Maastricht Treaty) to eliminate an exception to the principle of legal equality of the sexes contained in article 14 of the Spanish Constitution itself, currently in force, is something urgent that the monarchy of the 21st century cannot ignore.