The 1980 Bologna train station bombing “impressed an indelible mark of inhumanity on Italy’s identity, stemming from a ruthless neofascist subversive strategy aimed at striking constitutional values, social achievements, and our very civil coexistence,” stated Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
Recalling the attack’s 45th anniversary, the Head of State affirmed that August 2nd, 1980, “with its mutilated bodies, many innocent dead, the immense suffering of families, and the shock to a city and the entire national community, remains in the nation’s memory.” He noted that Bologna, the Emilia-Romagna region, and Italy responded “with promptness and firmness, expressing all possible solidarity, rejecting the destabilizing plan, complicities present even within state apparatuses, and the plots of those guiding the massacre’s perpetrators.”
“On this anniversary day,” Mattarella continued, “feelings of closeness are renewed towards the victims’ families. This expresses a cohesive community adhering to those democratic principles that the massacre’s architects sought to erase, generating fear to undermine institutions and push the country towards authoritarian drifts – responsibilities confirmed thanks to the tenacious work of Judges and state servants.”
Mattarella concluded: “The testimony of the Victims’ Families Association deserves the Republic’s gratitude. They have always kept the light shining on the path that revealed both perpetrators and masterminds, providing a precious example of fidelity to constitutional values, especially for young people.”
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