Mattarella to visit Milan Expo on June 5

(ANSA) - Rome, May 22 - 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".