Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Dear Milanese,

today is Milan day. It is the day of this extraordinary city that daily makes its way towards the future, aware of its historical responsibilities and confident in an Italy that is proud of itself.

Today is the day of the Milanese. Of those who were born in this city and of those who chose it throughout their lives, coming from all over the world.

It's the day we celebrate to resume the journey with a lot of heart, a lot of energy, a lot of awareness.

Milan is the city of work, medicine, fashion, design, industry and technology. All true. Yet Milan is not at all the city of things, but of people. In Milan things, beautiful things, new things, arise from people. From an extraordinary community made up of extraordinary women, men and also girls and boys. Curious people, active people, people full of confidence. The beautiful things that Milan does always have great women and men behind them, perhaps unknown people, who are in their place every day doing their part together with others.

Today we reward some of them with the highest civic merit, conferred with a unitary choice by the Commission: for this I thank the president of the City Council, the city councilors and the councilors who are members of the Commission.

The components of the city's excellence are all represented: culture, research, volunteering, economy, theatre, fashion, design, architecture. There are the different cultural souls and identities of this city that knows how to build a common project starting from diversity. We will listen to their profiles shortly and will be able to grasp in each one a piece of the identity and great heart of Milan.

However, I want to focus on the six Medals of Memory, six great Milanese people who have something to teach us for today and tomorrow.

Don Luigi Melesi, chaplain of San Vittore, takes us back to the Milan that supports the weakest and gives reasons for hope to everyone.

Carla Casiraghi for many years he has guarded a symbol of Milan, the Vicolo dei Lavandai, today visited by tourists from all over the planet also thanks to his commitment and love for this city.

George Squinzi he was the face of the great Milan of work, quality and innovation.

Eugenio Fumagalli, taxi driver hit and killed on the Milan-Meda road after stopping to provide aid to those injured in a road accident, he is a hero of generosity who does not make calculations, who does what must be done always and in any case.

Francesco Saverio Borrelli he was certainly a Magistrate, but above all he was a Milanese servant of the institutions, who acted following his conscience and the Constitution.

Filippo Penati he believed in politics and in the need not to hold back. Because whatever you think, when there are no longer anyone involved in politics, democracy will be over. 

I would like to indicate a value that I believe unites all the stories and actions of today's winners, individual personalities or associations. A value that Milan indicates to the country as the most necessary at this moment: the courage.

Courage so as not to let ourselves be influenced too much by the difficulties, which exist but can be overcome.

Courage to invent a new story, to go beyond the conditioning that comes from the crises and fears of the past.

Courage because we have many arrows to our bow, as a city, as a country, as a continent. And we are already using them, reopening many roads that lead us to the future. Innovation, environmental awareness, the responsibility to include those excluded from growth: these Milanese, Italian and European values ​​will soon lead us to write beautiful and new pages, starting from Milan. The sustainable and inclusive Milan that we are already building. 

If we open our hearts, minds and memories to courage then we remember who we are, who our teachers were and what we can build for the future: this is the meaning of today and of every single civic Merit.

And this is also the reason to say thank you to all of you who today receive the highest civic recognition: Milan is grateful to you and still asks you to be there and show us the way.

But precisely because the future is built on the foundations of history, today I can only deliver an additional ideal and solemn recognition, which comes from the bottom of my heart and which I believe all of you share: to the victims of Piazza Fontana and their families. There have been many official recognitions in recent decades, and they have accompanied the firm and civil reaction of the city since the day of the funeral. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, whom I thank, will be in Milan for an extraordinary city council meeting on 12 December.

But today, on the day of St. Ambrose which a few days precedes the 50th anniversary of the massacre, Milan cannot help but recognize its special and moving tribute to those victims and their families. A tribute in the style of Milan, that is, operational. We will continue to fight for the ideals of freedom and democracy that their sacrifice has taught us. Milan does not forget, Milan remains a bulwark against any anti-democratic subversion.

This is the Milan of yesterday, this is the Milan of today. And you all are the reason for our confidence and courage. We are proud to renew our commitment to continue together. All together, in this wonderful, surprising, courageous Milan of ours.

Giuseppe Sala 

Mayor of Milan