ROME – The Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, has paid homage on Tuesday to the anti-fascist struggle as part of the annual Liberation Day celebrations in Cuneo’s Parco della Resistenza, as over 100,000 people rallied to commemorate the memory of anti-fascist partisans in Milan. 

 Mattarella arrived in Cuneo for the April 25 celebrations accompanied by Defence Minister, Guido Crosetto and Defence Chief of Staff, Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. 

 The president laid a laurel wreath at the monument, by sculptor Umberto Mastroianni, in memory of the Resistance, pausing for a moment of reflection. 

 Mattarella started his speech using the words which Piero Calamandrei, a university professor and politician, addressed to a group of students in Milan in 1955.

 "If you want to go on a pilgrimage, to the place where our Constitution was born, go to the mountains where the partisans fell, to the prisons where they were imprisoned, to the camps where they were hanged, wherever an Italian died, to redeem freedom and dignity: go there, O young people, with your thoughts, because that is where our Constitution was born.”

 "And it is here then, in Cuneo, in the land of the 34 Gold Medals for Military Valour and the 174 Silver Medal recipients, the 228 Bronze Medals for the Resistance. The land of the twelve thousand partisans, the two thousand who fell in combat and the two thousand six hundred victims of Nazi-Fascist massacres. It is here that the Republic celebrates its roots today and celebrates Liberation Day,” Mattarella continued. 

 “The Resistance,” Mattarella explained, “was first and foremost a moral revolt of patriots against fascism for national redemption. A movement of the people that involved the older generation of anti-fascists.”

 “The list of localities affected in the Cuneo area composes a painful litany and sounds like a prayer. I want to remember them. Cuneo, the entire province, Alba, Boves, Borgo San Dalmazzo, Dronero; Clavesana, Peveragno, Cherasco, Busca, Costigliole Saluzzo, Genòla, Trinità, Venasca, Ceva, Pamparato; Mondovì, Priola, Castellino Tanaro, Garessio, Roburent, Paesana, Narzòle, Rossana, Savigliano; Barge, San Damiano Macra, Villanova Mondovì. To the memory of the victims and the suffering of the inhabitants the Republic bows.”

 "The country's crisis demanded a decisive moment, for a new idea of community, after the failure of the previous one. It was a matter of transfusing into the State the authentic soul of the nation. To give life to a new Italy. Today, Italy is a republic founded on the constitution, the daughter of the anti-fascist struggle.”

 "The struggle to ensure Italy's survival in the catastrophe to which fascism had led it was tough. We were helped by soldiers from other countries, who became friends and solid allies: many of them are buried in Italy," the president said. 

 The ceremony then concluded with the national anthem. 

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