75th Anniversary of the Liberation - Speech by Mayor Sala
Goodmorning everyone.
Below is the speech given by the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala, delivered today at 12pm Palazzo Marino on the occasion of the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation.
Thank you!
75th Anniversary of the Liberation April 25, 2020
Dear Milanese, Dear partisans, happy April 25th, happy Liberation!
April 25th has always had great importance for me, a particular meaning. For this reason, it is sad not to be able to celebrate among my fellow citizens and it saddens me not to see the streets of our city full of women, men and young people celebrating, as has always happened in past years.
The emergency situation we are experiencing unfortunately requires us to keep a low profile on this occasion too. However, in collaboration with the Anpi, we have done everything possible to give maximum prominence to this ceremony.
Even the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Lombardy Region, the Prefect of Milan and the metropolitan city wanted to ideally take part in this celebration, sending our city a wreath of flowers. On my behalf and that of all the Milanese, I heartily thank the President of the Chamber Roberto Fico and all the other authorities for this sign of affection; a message of closeness and solidarity in a difficult moment that makes us even more proud of our great country.
After three quarters of a century, April 25 retains its value and meaning intact. It keeps its revolutionary charge intact.
April 25th was in fact the epilogue of a true revolution of the Italian people. A revolution to overthrow the dictatorship and to regain Freedom, but also and above all a revolution to create a new Italy. April 25th paved the way for a radical change, which has profoundly affected our country.
Now, the difficult situation we find ourselves facing today due to the Covid19 epidemic is a real test for Italy. The epidemic, which hit our Region particularly cruelly, was an opportunity to call us to humility: Milan and Lombardy are used to breaking records and excelling, but in this dramatic emergency they have rediscovered their fragilities. Milan and Lombardy, with their strength and their excellence, found themselves disarmed in the face of such a subtle enemy; but at the same time they experienced first-hand the importance of being part of a great nation, of being part of a larger whole, which did not lack its solidarity, its closeness: the image of the dozens of doctors, nurses and volunteers who came from all over Italy to lend us a hand, risking themselves, will forever remain in our minds and hearts
However, Europe must participate as a protagonist in the battle we are fighting. I am convinced that in recent months a crucial game is being played for the future of the Union. We need unprecedented momentum, we need vision for the future, we need heart and courage. I believe that among European citizens this desire to form a common front, overcoming selfishness and divisions, is much stronger than what still appears today from the institutional leaders in Brussels.
We must think about tomorrow and prepare to start again with even more desire to do things: the new battle that awaits us, however, must transform itself into an opportunity to correct mistakes of the past, to rethink a development model that too often has forgotten the essential, the quality of human relationships, solidarity.
When imagining our future after the emergency, these aspects must be clearly present, even at the cost of changing rhythms and habits of life. I say this as mayor of a city devoted to modernity, innovation, development; a city that has made these values a source of pride and a component of its identity.
Reflecting on these aspects is a task that concerns everyone and it seems right to reiterate it on April 25th: an anniversary that more than any other tells us about what we are and what we want to be tomorrow, as a people and as a community. Planning the future with creativity, with the ability to manage complexity and a sense of the common good is a task that concerns politics, which concerns individual citizens, which concerns the economy, which must find new paths for progress that does not destroy relationships humans and the environment.
Let's go back to April 25th. Today, as then, we find ourselves fighting a battle. A cruel battle that has hit our community hard: all of Milan today stands together with affection and solidarity with those who are no longer here, with those who have suffered and with those who are suffering from this terrible disease.
The dramatic situation we are experiencing helps us understand - even more - the value of the sacrifice of those who fought for our Freedom for 75 years. Our thanks, our gratitude, our admiration go to all of them. Thanks to those who fell for Freedom, to those who overthrew fascism, to those who liberated the country, to those who built a new Italy on the material and moral ruins left by war and dictatorship.
The Liberation Struggle taught us to resist, to fight, to win united. He taught us to overcome differences to build a better world. This is why April 25th is truly the Italian holiday.
Today we need that same determination and that same passion: in the coming months we will need everyone's energy, industriousness, creativity and generosity. Milan and Italy can do it. Together we can rediscover something in this emergency that perhaps we risked forgetting: the pride in being all part of one large community, free and democratic, born from the Resistance, anti-fascism and Liberation.
I want to conclude with the verses of a great man who left us in recent days, Luis Sepulveda. It is a tribute to those who knew how to fight, resist and win for all of us.
I admire those who resist,
who made the verb resist
flesh, sweat, blood
and demonstrated without grand gestures
that it is possible to live,
and live on your feet even in the worst moments.
These are words that are also valid today, for all of us.
Long live Italy, long live the Liberation, long live the Resistance!
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Updated: 25/04/2020