The Victims of Terrorism: Heroes of Europe? The range and limits of the European Day in Remembrance of Victims of Terrorism

This article, which is designed as a contribution to the study of relations between European memory policies and processes of identification with Europe, focuses on the case of the "European day in memory of the victims of terrorism", celebrated each year on March 11 since the terrorist attacks of 2004 in Madrid. The adoption of this day of commemoration is first analysed as the result of the opening of a "window of opportunity" in the post-September 11, 2001 context. Then, the author studies more specifically the role played in this context by the "rise in generality" at the European level of the cause of victims of ETA, relayed by elected representatives of the European people's Party, in order to understand why this day seems to comply with the model of the commemoration of the "dead for the country". However, the limitations of the implementation of this day outside of Spain attest that this model is not able to be established effectively at the European level. Instead of a memorial ritual striving to maintain the memory of the reactions of solidarity in Europe to the attacks in Madrid in 2004 and thus strengthen the European identity, this day of commemoration must therefore be regarded as a mere instrument for a policy aiming at the recognition of victims.