Italian President Sergio Mattarella
will visit Expo Milano 2015 on June 5, sources at the
presidential palace said Friday.
The Italian head of State will tour pavilions the entire
day, they said.
Mattarella is among a host of government and State leaders
who are scheduled to see to World Fair, which has attracted an
average of some 150,000 visitors a day since opening at the
start of this month under the theme Feeding the Planet, Energy
for Life.
"In June, there are many leaders who will visit Expo,
(including from) France, United Kingdom, Russia. Expo is the
clearest response to complainers", Premier Matteo Renzi said in
an interview on Italian radio this week.
Renzi will visit the Expo on June 2, while Russian
President Vladimir Putin will attend on June 10.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also expected to visit
Expo as some stage, as well as British Prime Minister David
Cameron, French President Francois Hollande and many other
leaders.
Organizers are hoping United States First Lady Michelle
Obama and Pope Francis will come too.
Both are already engaged in the issues that Expo tackles.
Michelle Obama is a big advocate of promoting nutrition
and healthy lifestyles.
Since being elected pope two years ago, Francis has
frequently drawn attention to the scandal that over 800 million
people endure hunger in a world that produces more than enough
food for everyone.
"May it not be only a theme, may it always be accompanied
by the conscience of the faces - the faces of the millions of
people who today are hungry, who do not eat in a way which is
worthy of humanity," Francis said in a video message for the
World Fair's inauguration on May 1
"Let us thus make this Expo an occasion for a change in
mentality, to stop thinking that our daily action - at every
level of responsibility - does not impact the lives of those,
whether near or far, who are suffering from hunger.
"I am thinking of the many men and women who suffer from
hunger, especially the many children who are dying of hunger in
the world".
The Vatican has a small, 300-square-metre pavilion at Expo
which Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, Expo Commissioner General for
the Holy See, described as "minimalist, very simple, but also
with a heart, in the spirit of Pope Francis".
Renzi said Thursday that Italy was showing its best side
at Milan Expo 2015, after the World Fair recovered from being
hit by a big corruption probe last year that had led to calls
from some quarters for the event to be scrapped
"Feeding the planet is Expo's theme and some people must
have got the wrong end of the stick and tried to feed off it,"
Renzi said.
"But now Italy is showing its best face at Expo".
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