Norway commemorates the 12th anniversary of the Utoya massacre

July 22 () –

Norway has commemorated this Saturday the 12th anniversary of the Utoya terrorist attack, which left 77 dead, with various ceremonies in which the country’s authorities participate.

The author of the attacks was Anders Behring Breivik, of far-right ideology. On July 22, 2011, he first detonated a car bomb in Oslo’s government district, killing eight people. He then drove to the island of Utoya, where he pretended to be a police officer and began shooting participants in the annual Labor Party youth summer camp. There he killed 69 people.

The current party leader, Astrid Willa Eide Hoem, is precisely one of the survivors of the massacre. This Saturday she has traveled to Utoya to commemorate her deceased classmates.

“For 12 years we have lived without them. This is where we dream big about the future, without knowing that many of them would not have it,” he lamented during his commemoration speech, picked up by the VG chain.

Previously, the young politician had participated in a ceremony at the Government headquarters, accompanied by the country’s Prime Minister, Eide Hoem and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who called for the memory of the tragedy.

“It is good to come together to remember, to never forget, to never be silent. We do it for the dead, for the wounded, for those who still have scars,” he declared.

Breivik was sentenced in 2021 to 21 years in prison, with a minimum sentence of ten years behind bars.