Meloni: «Via D’Amelio, that’s why I won’t go to the torchlight vigil» | The letter to the Courier

Dear Director,
31 years ago on 19 July the mafia killed the judge Paolo Borsellino and the five agents of his escort. Like every year, this time too I will be in Palermo to pay homage to their memory and to renew my personal commitment, and that of the whole government, against the mafias. He will chair the Committee for public order and safety to take stock of the work carried out on the activity of contrasting organized crime that the institutions, at every level, are carrying out. In recent days, a bit of everything has been said about my presence in Palermo. Some even wrote that I would have deserted the commemorations because I was in crisis with the Borsellino myth. , of course, false. Just as cloying is the attempt by some to exploit my impossibility – given by others concurrent commitments — to also participate in the traditional torchlight vigil of Palermo, organized by Comunit ’92 and Forum XIX July and which over time has become an appreciated and well-attended event. And in which I have always proudly taken part.

I remember, as if it were yesterday, the profound and visceral rejection of the mafia that, as a girl, I felt when faced with the images of the massacre in via D’Amelio. From that refusal was born the long, convinced political commitment that has brought me here, from a simple militant of a youth movement to the presidency of the Council of Ministers. For this reason, I can only be deeply proud of the fact that the government I preside over today has had, from its first day, the determination and courage necessary to face mafia cancer head-on. The facts prove it. We have secured fundamental principals such as the restriction of prison benefits, and if today mafia bosses of the caliber of Matteo Messina Denaro are detained under the 41 bis regime, it is precisely due to this commitment. We have unblocked the hirings in the forces of order, we have lined up alongside the magistrates and those who lead the battle against the mafia every day in the area, we are working on a provision that gives an authentic interpretation of what is meant by crimes of organized crime and which avoids the risk that serious crimes go unpunished following a recent ruling by the Court of Cassation.

There is still a lot to do, but our commitment will never run out. Simply because the fight against the mafia is part of us, a cornerstone of our identity, the moral question that guides our daily actions. We owe it to Paolo Borsellino, and to all those who sacrificed their lives for justice and honored Italy.

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