President Sergio Mattarella said
Friday that Italy stands with those who are fighting for freedom
in Ukraine.
"We are reliving in Europe the tragedy of the war, which we
hoped would be put away forever in the archives of history after
the horrors we experienced then.
And it is precisely putting the integral dignity of the person
at the centre of every action that leads us to take the side of
those who are attacked and fight for their independence and
freedom.", Mattarella said in Brescia at the official
inauguration ceremony of the Italian Capital of Culture 2023,
together with the city of Bergamo.
"In the year just ended, a strong signal of unity and innovation
was sent out from a small, enchanting island, Procida," he went
on, referring to last year's culture capital, the tiny iconic
island in the Bay of Naples between Ischia and Capri.
"Culture does not isolate, they proclaimed. Culture, in fact,
unites and multiplies. It is a strength of bell towers to know
how to unite and not divide energies. You collect, in the north
of our country, the same witness as Procida; confirming the
unity that strengthens Italy".
He went on to say that the right to free speech and expression
is enshrined in Italy's founding Constitutional charter.
"Culture is closely connected with freedom: to study, to
research, to express one's thoughts. We are reminded of this -
once again - by our Constitution. Art and science are free, says
Article 33; while Article 21 provides for the right to freely
express one's thoughts. The exercise that Brescia and Bergamo,
the Capital of Culture, are about to undertake is, therefore, a
great exercise of freedom, which the whole country will be
looking at".
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