Fosse Ardeatine, Meloni: “Memory is a daily civic duty”. Mattarella at the mausoleum greeted by applause

ROME. «Today Italy honors the victims of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre. Seventy-nine years ago, 335 Italians were barbarously murdered by the Nazi occupation troops in retaliation for the partisan attack in via Rasella». The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni writes it in a message on the anniversary of the massacre. «A massacre – he continues – which marked one of the deepest and most painful wounds inflicted on our national community: 335 innocent Italians massacred just because they were Italian. It is up to all of us – Institutions, civil society, schools and the world of information – to remember those martyrs and to tell the younger generations in particular what happened on that terrible March 24, 1944. May memory never be a mere exercise in style but a duty civic duty to be exercised every day”.

The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, went to the mausoleum to participate in the ceremony commemorating the 79th anniversary of the massacre of 24 March 1944. Present at the ceremony, among others, were the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, Lorenzo Fontana and Ignazio La Russa, the president of the Constitutional Court Silvana Sciarra, the mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri. The President of the Republic was greeted by a brief applause from those present. Mattarella then listened to the long list in memory of the victims and entered the shrine for a private moment of recollection.

“In the face of episodes of racism and anti-Semitism, we must not let our guard down. There are unacceptable expressions that crop up in too many places», said the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony for the 79th anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre. «A capacity to educate to the values ​​and principles of our Constitution must be built. We are involved in schools so that what happened is not forgotten and to counteract all the phenomena of anti-Semitism, racism and the re-enactment of Nazi-fascism”. These episodes “are not goliardia – he added – we must not have an attitude of underestimation”.