Overview
- King Felipe VI condemned any justification of terrorism, called memory a civic duty, and noted that many of the 853 recognized ETA murders remain unsolved.
- The homage at the Autonomous University of Madrid gathered Queen Letizia, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Constitutional Court president Cándido Conde-Pumpido, and three of the jurist’s children, concluding with a floral offering and a minute of silence.
- An exhibition titled “In Memoriam Tomás y Valiente. 1996–2026” features a reconstruction of his office with original shelves showing the bullet impacts from the 1996 attack.
- In a related commemoration at the Constitutional Court, Conde-Pumpido defended the court’s legitimacy against criticisms, citing high public trust in CIS polling and recent productivity figures of 500 rulings over three years, including 192 in 2025.
- The assassination in 1996, carried out in the professor’s campus office by ETA, helped galvanize the ‘manos blancas’ protests as students and citizens publicly repudiated terror.