Spanish King Felipe VI joined French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to mark France’s first national day of commemoration for the victims of terrorism.
“This day is a day we hold particularly close to our hearts,’’ Felipe told dignitaries and representatives of security forces and rescue services at the ceremony at the Trocadero in Paris.
“March 11 had originally been named a European day for terrorism victims as the anniversary of the 2004 jihadist bomb attacks on Madrid suburban trains that killed 193 people.
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“We will not renounce liberty, the liberty to believe or not to believe.
“We will not renounce equality, equality between men and women, we will renounce nothing, because our children, our friends, our fellow citizens died for that,’’ Macron vowed.
More than 230 people were killed in terrorist attacks in France in 2015 and 2016 that were mostly claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
Another 18 have died in a series of smaller attacks since then.
“France had helped eliminate Islamic State’s territories in Syria and Iraq,’’ Macron recalled.