Mattarella on Capaci’s anniversary: ​​”The mafia is a cancer, but it’s not invincible”

We publish below the speech given by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on the occasion of the thirty-first anniversary of the Capaci massacre

Thirty-one years ago on May 23, the mafia massacre launched a new ferocious and bloody attack against the democratic state. With Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo, a valuable magistrate, Antonio Montinaro, Rocco Dicillo, Vito Schifani, who protected him with commitment, lost their lives. A massacre, that of Capaci, which continued, a few weeks later, with another devastating attack, in via D’Amelio in Palermo, in which Paolo Borsellino died, with Emanuela Loi, Agostino Catalano, Walter Eddie Cosina, Vincenzo Li Muli, Claudio Trolling. To these witnesses of the legality of the Republic, to the torment of their families, to the pain of those who then lost a friend, a teacher, a point of reference, the first thoughts are addressed on the day of remembrance. Those events are forever inscribed in the history of the Republic. It is accompanied by a sense of closeness and gratitude towards those who fought the mafia by inflicting irrevocable defeats on it, demonstrating that it is possible to free oneself from blackmail, promoting a civil reaction which has allowed the community to regain confidence.

The mafia criminals thought they were bending the institutions, making the people subject to an infamous power. The Republic knew how to react with rigor and justice. Magistrates such as Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino have demolished the mafia presumption of a parallel order, revealing what the mafia is in reality: a cancer for the civil community, an organization of criminals that is by no means invincible, devoid of any honor and dignity. The mafia killed them, but a mobilization of consciences arose, which activated a strong sense of citizenship. In institutions, schools, civil society, the fight against mafias and crime has become a condition of civilization, an indispensable part of a shared ethic. The fight against the mafias must be continued with commitment and increasing determination. A teaching of Giovanni Falcone always remains with us: the mafia can be beaten and is bound to end.