Peace and Europe at the center of the celebrations for April 25th in Legnanowho gathered in the square to celebrate the 79th anniversary of the Liberation a few hours after the attack on the city headquarters of the ANPI, outraged in the night with a banner that mimics the exploits of the accountant Ugo Fantozzi by Paolo Villaggio (“La Resistenza it’s crazy…” and with a lot of manure deposited right in front of the shop windows on via Ciro Menotti.
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April 25th in Legnano 4 of 36
The mayor: “Legnano was, is and will always be anti-fascist”
From the stage in Piazza San Magno the mayor of Legnano Lorenzo Radice clearly stated that «Legnano not
she is afraid to say that she was, is and will always be anti-fascist» and reiterated the need to «sow a seed for the future“, a future “as imagined by those who said no to the inhumanity and injustice on which the Nazi-fascist dictatorships were based and who put their lives at risk to overthrow them, deciding to say “enough!” to indifference».
«Peace and war are not abstract and distant concepts, but concern everyone and remind everyone of their responsibility – underlined the mayor, recalling the armed conflict in Ukraine and the appeals of Pope Francis -. Everyone, no one excluded. We must remember that those who fought in the Resistance did not just fight enemies, but against the very logic of war, of the violence and oppression on which totalitarian regimes were based. Those who fought the Nazi-fascist dictatorship took up arms with a precise idea: no more wars in the world. That of the partisans and the allied forces was, in fact, a war of Liberation, a war that looked to peace and a world based on peaceon freedom, on equality.”
And peace comes to Europe, that Europe «which can and must be improved, but which in the face of the pandemic was able to put aside divisions to make a common debt and give a future to its young people with the Next generation EU». «Think what you want, but it is now clear that if we want a stronger Italy we need a stronger Europe – reiterated Radice, focusing on the chains at the feet of Ilaria Salis in the Court in Budapest and on Antonio Scurati’s monologue that was never broadcast -. Because it is in Europe that the decisions that matter are made in Europe we must be there with full conviction. The belief that today the big issues – Peace, finance, defence, the environment, artificial intelligence – can only be addressed on a continental scale, therefore within an institution that unites different nations in a large common project. You can’t go anywhere alone anymore. You sink alone. The autarchic dream of those who still dream of an impossible sovereignism today is nothing more than a mere illusion and a pathetic scam. A nightmare: how the UK bitterly discovered after Brexit. Europe today is our best guarantee for more peace, more prosperity and more freedom».
HERE IS THE FULL SPEECH OF MAYOR LORENZO RADICE
Associarma: “Wars only bring misery, desperation, hunger and death”
A warning against war also came from Associarma through the voice of president Antonio Cortese. “In Italy April 25th is the date that exalts the experience of a people who were capable of redeeming themselves, leaving behind material and moral rubble, inherited from an authoritarian regime that oppressed freedom of thought and speech – were Cortese’s words -. We can therefore say that today the nation benefits from those values of peace and cohesion necessary to understand that conflicts and wars do not generate anything good and they are not a source of progress: indeed, they are only harbingers of misery, desperation, hunger and death, precisely because they are the mirror of madness and the incessant thirst for power.”
“Right now It is the future of Italy that we must look to, in faithfulness to the values of our Constitution, which allowed our post-war society to grow and reach social goals that were unimaginable at the time, achieved with the struggle to resist Nazi-fascism, with thousands of freedom fighters imprisoned, tortured, hanged and shot, with many massacres of civilians – added Cortese -. This is why they died, this is why they live. The conclusion of the Second World War in Italy – beyond the conflicts that preceded and, in part, followed it – it led to the return of democracy, freedom and respect for the human person, according to the principles indicated in our beautiful Constitution. These principles allow us today to live in a context of civilization that makes us proud and prepared to defend ourselves, within the framework of international alliances, in the face of threats that could also loom on our borders.”
HERE IS THE FULL SPEECH OF ASSOCIARMA PRESIDENT ANTONIO CORTESE
ANPI: “Today the strongest choice that can be made is democracy”
The value of peace in the years of the escalation of armed conflicts was also at the center of the speech by Mario Principe, general secretary of the CGIL Ticino Olona and member of the board of directors of the ANPI “Mauro Venegoni” section of Legnano. «The end of the war is an extraordinary liberating moment, because despite the difficulties that will come we are aware that the worst is probably behind us – is the thought expressed by Principe -. Precisely for this reason it hurts even more to witness helplessly the continuous unfolding of many wars in the world: in particular in this period I am thinking of Gaza and Israel and the conflict in Ukraine, at a time where war has once again become the normal instrument for regulating relations between stateswho are in the midst of an overall redefinition of the balance which is not taking place with the rules of democracy, discussion and mediation but with the use of weapons and violence, while today the strongest choice that can be practiced is democracy».
«Hence the urgency of strengthening the unity of all the peacekeeping forces in our country and of dialogue between all the anti-fascist forces to lower tension and seek the path to negotiation, starting with the largest democratic forces present in Parliament – added Principe -. An April 25th therefore of memory of the Liberation and commitment to peace: not just a celebration, a day of celebration, but a stimulus to everyone for the return of politics as a capacity for conflict resolution. We have never been equidistant: we are on the side of the attacked against the aggressors, then as now».
«April 25, 2024 is for peace, Liberation Day in the current historical context we are experiencing takes on a particular connotation that is tinged with the colors of the rainbow – concluded Principe -. This is because April 25th is the symbolic day of the values of the Democratic Republic, of freedom, of democracy, of anti-fascism, of work and therefore also of peace, values all enshrined in our constitutional charter. LThe inestimable value that those young people gave us is precisely peace, because they did not take up arms for war: they did it so that a new and more just civilization could be built on those reaffirmed principles. On April 25th they laid down those weapons because it is not from armed revenge, arrogance or violent division that a pacified society is born. This is why Italy repudiates war: it is written in our Constitution, and this is the article that we want to keep in mind in our celebrations this year.”
