Earlier Friday, preparations were made for the funeral in the five-century-old basilica, the home church of the still-existing knighthoods of the Duchy of Parma. There were flags of the Carlists and the bier was decorated with an enormous crown, as a reference to the royal status of the House of Bourbon-Parma.
On the coffin was, among other things, a red beret, the symbol of the Carlist movement. “Maria Teresa was deeply involved in the struggle for democratization, social justice and freedom in Spain for a long time. In that life mission, she supported her own father as well as her brother and our father Prince Carlos Hugo,” said Prince Carlos last year.
The Carlist movement, now a splinter group in Spain, favors a different state construction of Spain and sees Prince Carlos as entitled to the throne. The House of Bourbon-Parma ruled Parma and nearby Piacenza until the unification of Italy in 1860 and has maintained ties with both cities for the last quarter of a century.
Source: ANP
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