From Messi to Patti Smith: who is who among the winners of the Princess of Asturias 2026

After the 2026 ceremony, the next steps are to close the events of this edition and prepare the 2027 call: submission of candidacies, jury deliberations, announcement of winners, and a new awarding in October. It is important to distinguish the already announced schedule for the close of 2026 from the usual cycle of the next edition: the specific dates for 2027 have not yet been published in the sources consulted.

1. Closing the 2026 events

The main ceremony is scheduled for today, October 23, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. Afterwards, the agenda will continue on Saturday, October 24, at 12:00 p.m., with the awarding of the Exemplary Town of Asturias Prize to the Santa Ana Fishermen's Brotherhood in Llanes. This event will close the institutional programming but is a different distinction from the eight international categories, according to the agenda published by Demócrata.

2. Call and submission of candidacies for 2027

The next milestone will be the publication by the Princess of Asturias Foundation of the call, the rules, and the form for the new edition. The usual pattern places this preparation between the end of the year and the beginning of the next. Until it is published, its deadlines should not be considered confirmed.

According to the awards regulations, candidates can be proposed by, among others, former laureates, academic and cultural institutions, universities, diplomatic representations, and persons or entities of recognized prestige. Jury members can also propose candidates, except for the award whose jury they belong to.

• The proposal is submitted through the official form, accompanied by documentation that proves the merits: publications, bibliography, or audiovisual material.
• The Foundation verifies the requirements and decides on admission. The identity of the candidacies is kept confidential.
• As a reference, in 2026 the ordinary deadline ended on March 5 and the adhesion deadline on March 26. These dates are not automatically transferable to 2027.
• There is an exception for former laureates and jury members: they can submit candidacies or endorsements up to six calendar days before the corresponding jury is constituted, respecting incompatibilities.

3. Deliberations and announcement of winners

Then the eight juries will meet: Arts; Communication and Humanities; Scientific and Technical Research; International Cooperation; Social Sciences; Sports; Letters; and Concord. Each deliberates for two consecutive days in Oviedo and communicates its decision at the end of the second day by reading the awarding act.

The 2026 precedent places this phase between late April and June: it began with Arts on April 28 and 29, and ended with Concord on June 16 and 17. The Foundation published that meeting schedule. For 2027, a similar sequence is expected, but not identical dates. To vote, jurors must attend all deliberative meetings from the start.

4. Preparation and awarding of the next edition

Once the winners are announced, the organization of their attendance, audiences, public meetings, and complementary events will follow. The annual awarding is usually held in October at the Campoamor Theater, with participation from the Royal Family and speeches by laureates and institutional representatives.

Practically speaking, the announcements to follow on the Foundation's website are three: opening of candidacies, jury schedule, and awarding date. The annual framework is defined; the specific 2027 agenda is not yet.

Princess Leonor performs honorary, representative, and protocol functions in the Princess of Asturias Awards, but she does not have her own public powers to decide who receives the awards nor to manage the Foundation. Her participation should be understood by distinguishing three levels: her constitutional status as heir, the Honorary Presidency of the Foundation, and the activities she assumes in each edition.

1. What Spanish legislation establishes

Article 57.2 of the Spanish Constitution recognizes the heir to the Crown the dignity of Prince or Princess of Asturias and the other titles traditionally linked to the successor. This status explains Leonor's institutional connection with awards that bear the name of that dignity, but does not grant her governing powers over them.

The Royal Decree 1368/1987, on titles, treatments, and honors of the Royal Family and Regents, develops that recognition: it establishes the dignity of Princess of Asturias, the treatment of Royal Highness, and the corresponding honors. It does not regulate the selection of laureates nor entrust the heir with the direction of the organizing entity.

Therefore, her institutional presence should not be confused with the exercise of administrative authority. Nor do the rules on her symbols, such as Royal Decree 979/2015, which creates her guidon and standard, confer competencies over the awards.

2. What the Honorary Presidency means

Leonor holds the Honorary Presidency of the Princess of Asturias Foundation. This is an institutional position within the Foundation, distinct from the effective presidency and the bodies responsible for its governance and management.

It is important to separate legislation and internal rules: the Foundation's statutes and the awards regulations govern its operation but do not equate to a law granting public powers to the Princess. Her honorary presidency expresses the link with the heir and contributes to the public projection of the scientific, cultural, social, and humanistic purposes of the institution.

3. What functions she performs and which she does not

In the awards programming, her role can be specified as:

• Receiving the laureates in audiences and institutional meetings.
• Participating in the ceremony of awarding and in acts related to the Foundation.
• Delivering speeches recognizing the laureates and supporting the values they represent.
• Intervening in the protocolary awarding of distinctions and giving institutional visibility to the awards.

These actions do not include personally choosing the laureates, imposing candidacies, modifying decisions, or assuming economic management by virtue of her honorary status. The awards regulations assign the evaluation and decision on candidacies to the juries; their presidents lead deliberations and voting, and their secretaries ensure compliance with the rules.

4. More prominence does not mean new legal competencies

The scope of her ceremonial participation can be expanded without changing this distribution. For example, Demócrata reports that on October 23, 2026, she received the laureates alone for the first time. This is an expansion of her representative activity, not a transfer of decision-making powers.

In short, Leonor institutionally represents and supports the awards; the juries decide the prizes and the Foundation's bodies govern the entity. The constitutional dignity, honorary presidency, and protocol prominence are related realities but legally different.

Before receiving the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2026, Timothy Garton Ash had developed a career as a historian, journalist, and essayist of contemporary Europe. His political influence does not come from government positions or a partisan career, but from his work as a public intellectual: he has studied democratic transitions and participated in debates on freedom, authoritarianism, and European integration.

Education and experience in divided Europe

Born in London on July 12, 1955, he studied Modern History at Exeter College, Oxford, graduating in 1977. His research on German resistance against Hitler led him to Berlin, where he lived in both the western and eastern sectors. Contact with the two Germanys was decisive in directing his work towards the Cold War and the consequences of continental division, according to the Princess of Asturias Foundation.

From that experience arose his way of combining historical research, direct observation, and journalism: the "history of the present". His goal was to understand events as they happened, without giving up the historical context necessary to interpret them.

Journalism and study of democratic transitions

During the 1980s, he followed on the ground the crisis of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. He paid special attention to dissident movements and the Polish Solidarity union. In 1983 he published The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, a work on opposition to the Polish regime that consolidated his profile as an analyst of those processes.

He worked as foreign affairs editor of The Spectator, European affairs columnist for The Times, and international columnist for The Independent; he also collaborated with The New York Review of Books. This activity allowed him to narrate the transformations that led to the revolutions of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. As Demócrata highlights, his trajectory is closely linked to those European changes.

Academic career and works

He began teaching at Oxford in 1986 and was Professor of European Studies from 2004. He also directed its Centre for European Studies and has been affiliated with St Antony’s College, where he is listed as emeritus professor. His career also includes being a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.

Among his books are The Fruits of Adversity, The History of the Present, Freedom of Speech, and Europe: A Personal History. Overall, his work addresses the fall of communism, European construction, civil liberties, and threats to democracy. Simultaneously, he has maintained journalistic activity in The Guardian and through his newsletter The History of the Present.

Political commitment and previous recognitions

His commitment revolves around liberal democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, and European cooperation. Therefore, his "political trajectory" should be understood as intellectual and civic intervention, not as holding executive responsibilities.

In his recent analyses, he has advocated strengthening Europe's capacity to support Ukraine and reduce its strategic dependence on the United States. A 2025 interview also reported that he donated the 50,000 Canadian dollars from the Lionel Gelber Prize, awarded for Europe, to the purchase of drones for Ukraine.

Before the Asturian award, he had received, among others, the Somerset Maugham in 1984, the Orwell Prize for political writing in 2006, and the Charlemagne Prize in 2017. The Princess of Asturias Award thus recognizes a trajectory that combines historical knowledge, journalistic testimony, and public defense of democratic freedoms.