The King expressed his “total recognition and rest to all the relatives of the victims whose lives were destroyed by terrorism and who, despite everything, continue to give us every day a magisterial lesson in strength and dignity”
The king has stated that “it is everyone’s responsibility to maintain the legacy” of the victims of terrorism and “defend their rights” by collecting the IX Alberto Jiménez-Becerril Award against terrorism and violence in Seville.
The victims of terrorism were deprived of their rights “for wanting only something as precious as living their lives normally, respecting and safeguarding coexistence, freedom, democracy and the rule of law”, Felipe VI pointed out when collecting this award that It remembers the married couple Alberto Jiménez-Becerril and his wife, Ascensión García Ortiz, assassinated by the terrorist group ETA 25 years ago.
In his speech, the King said that he considers this award “a recognition for our society as a whole, which has suffered from terror but has always trusted in the dignity of the victims, in solidarity with all Spaniards and in the strength of the State of Law to deal effectively with terrorism”.
The King described the murder of Alberto and Ascen as “cowardly and vile”, who then left behind three small children, one of whom, who bears the name of his father, is now the president of the Alberto Jiménez-Becerril Foundation, which has instituted this award and has organized the exhibition on the reflection of terrorism in the press that is shown in the Seville City Hall.
The King expressed his “full recognition and rest to all the relatives of the victims whose lives were destroyed by terrorism and who, despite everything, continue to give us a master class in strength and dignity every day.”
To the victims of terrorism, he added, Spanish society owes that the three words that are the motto of the Jiménez-Becerril Foundation, “Memory, dignity and justice” have never lost their value.
In an emotional tone, he recalled that the first public act that the queen and he had after the proclamation was a meeting with the victims of terrorism because it was “a moral and personal commitment that we wanted to convey from the beginning, and continuing the position held before as Princes of Asturias”.
“The victims dignify our democracy”, Felipe VI has reiterated, since that same phrase has been one of those cited in his speech by the president of the Alberto Jiménez-Becerril Foundation as proof of the king’s continued support for the victims.
Special message from the King
The king addressed the mother of Alberto Jiménez-Becerril, present at the event, to tell her: “I hope these simple and heartfelt words have been able to comfort you even a little, despite how extremely difficult it is to live with that pain and such unfair absences. 25 years have passed and I know that he still is. As well as that since then his last thought every night is for his son Alberto”.
And he added that the values in which the three children of Alberto and Ascensión have been educated, those that “their parents defended”, are the values that “unite us” and those that “we must transmit from generation to generation”.
The king, who has visited the Seville City Council headquarters for the first time, has been received by the mayor of the city, José Luis Sanz, and by the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, among other authorities including was the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and has also been acclaimed by hundreds of Sevillians with shouts of “Long live the King” and “Long live Spain”.
The mayor of Seville in his speech has asked to never give in to blackmail and extortion by terrorists “because Alberto and Ascen would not have wanted it”, while the president of the Foundation that bears the name of his father, Alberto Jiménez -Becerril, has described the King’s words as a “powerful and significant message” each time he has referred to the victims of terrorism.