Republic's goal to heal fractures

(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - The Italian Republic's goal is to heal fractures, President Sergio Mattarella said at the naming of a Rome university lecture hall after Massimo D'Antona, a labour law expert gunned down by the Red Brigades 20 years ago today.
    "The Republic has the objective of closing the fractures that appear in society, but those who detest democracy wants to widen the fractures so that they become incurable conflicts, which sow fear and rancour," he said. They thus want the Italian Constitution to become "unachievable", he said.
    Mattarella said the "threats to democracy are changing and we must defend our values.
    "In a democratic country like ours we must constantly remember that there is a patrimony of values and institutions that must be defended together," he said.
    The president stressed that terrorism had been defeated by unity and described D'Antona's assassination as a "cowardly murder and an incurable wound".