Spain and the European Union pay tribute to the 192 victims of the bombings on a train in Madrid on March 11, 2004, which marked the beginning of the mass Islamist attacks in Europe, reported AFP.
Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will preside over the official ceremony at 12:15 p.m. local time at the Royal Collection Gallery, a museum near the palace.
Organized by Brussels, March 11 has become an official European day of remembrance "for the victims of terrorism".
On this date in 2004, the Spanish capital was plunged into chaos after 10 bombs destroyed 4 suburban trains during the early morning rush hour.
Although Spain has experienced decades of violence by the Basque separatist group ETA, it has never been hit by an attack of this magnitude, and taxi drivers and the public rallied to help emergency services, which took nearly 2,000 injured to hospital .
Just two and a half years earlier, the United States had been hit by the attacks of September 11, 2001, in which al-Qaeda militants killed nearly 3,000 people, but when Madrid was hit, Europe did not immediately think of the jihadist movement. founded by Osama bin Laden.
Known as 11M - Spanish acronym for March 11 - the attacks on a train at Atocha station and 3 others traveling there take place in a highly tense political context just days before parliamentary elections on March 14.
At the time, the ruling right-wing People's Party (NP) of outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar was the favorite to win over the opposition Socialists, led by José Luis Zapatero.
A year earlier, Asnar's government had decided to join the US-led invasion of Iraq, despite widespread public opposition. In the months that followed, Bin Laden threatened to retaliate against countries that supported the invasion.
However, within hours of the Madrid attacks, Asnar's government publicly blamed ETA, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
But the ETA hypothesis was soon disproved after investigators tracked down the perpetrators, most notably through three unexploded bombs found in backpacks and duffel bags.
Al Qaeda itself claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in response to Spain's involvement in the Iraq war.
Although social media did not yet exist, doubts about the government's explanation quickly spread across Spain, and during the huge demonstrations the next day, protesters expressed hostility towards the authorities, who were accused of lying at a time when the word "disinformation" barely existed .
On March 14, the public voted overwhelmingly to give the opposition Socialists a landslide victory, with analysts saying the government's disastrous handling of the attacks played a key role.
In early April, 7 suspected members of the jihadist cell involved in the bloodshed blew themselves up when police surrounded the apartment they were holed up in on the southwestern outskirts of Madrid.
A police officer was also killed in the explosion, who in Spain is considered the 193rd victim of the attacks.
After a three-year investigation in early 2007, 29 suspects, the majority of whom were Moroccan, were brought to trial in a 6-month trial. In the end, 18 of them were convicted.
Twenty years later, only three are still serving sentences - two Moroccans, who each received nearly 43,000 years, and a Spaniard who supplied the explosives and was jailed for nearly 35,000 years.
Basically, they will remain behind bars until 2044.
All others were released after serving their sentences, with the majority deported or extradited, mainly to Morocco. /BGNES
