I need to add a class on <a></a> when te user click on in it

i have this structure

    <ul class="buttons">
        <li class="buttons-section-r col-4"><a class="button-link active-button institutional" href="example.com">Institucional</a></li>
        <li class="buttons-section-r col-4"><a class="button-link services" href="example-2.com">Servicios a la ciudadanía</a></li>
        <li class="buttons-section-r col-4"><a class="button-link cedae" href="example-3.com">CEDAE (Datos para la democracia)</a></li>
    </ul>

I need when the user click on the link, the "active-button" class put on the link he click before, that list is on the footer so appear in all the website

I tried with js but is a redirection so the js reset, so that doesn't work