It took place this morning at Salerno the traditional ceremony to celebrate the 79th anniversary of the Liberation.
In the first part of the morning the ceremony was held in the church of the Sacred Heart Holy Mass in remembrance of the fallen by Father Raffaele Bufano and Don Giuseppe Greco, Provincial Chaplain of the State Police. At the end of the function the civil, military and religious authorities, the mayors of the municipalities of the province, the representatives of the trade union organizations and the combat and weapons associations, the students of the “Gennaro Barra e Vicinanza” comprehensive schools and of the “Hotel and Hospitality Institute” Roberto Virtuoso” of Salerno and the citizens gathered in Piazza Vittorio Veneto where they were returned honors to the fallen and placing laurel wreaths on the War Memorial and on the tombstone of Partisan Lieutenant Ugo Stanzione.
Subsequently the Prefect Francesco Esposito he addressed a greeting to those present.
After the institutional messages from the mayor of Salerno Vincenzo Napoli and the President of the Province Francesco Alfieri ample space was given to the interventions of the general secretary of the CISL Salerno Maria Carmela Cortazzi, of the president of the National Association of Families of the Fallen and Missing in War of Salerno Antonio Landi and the provincial vice-president of the National Association of Partisans of Italy of Salerno Michela Masullo.
The second part of the ceremony was held in front of the Sailor’s Monument where we witnessed the solemn flag raising and the laying of the laurel wreath of the National Sailors’ Association of Italy. The procession then continued its route to Piazza XXV Aprile, where a wreath of flowers was laid by theANPI. Finally it ended in front of the Provincial Palace: here the laurel wreath was placed at the foot of the plaque of the Gold Medals of the Resistance.
The commemoration was enlivened by the “Lorenzo Rinaldi” Instrumental Complex Musical Association – City of Giffoni Valle Piana, directed by Maestro Francesco Guida, who performed the Italian Hymn, the Hymn to Joy and other traditional songs.
The students acted as a backdrop to the ceremony, as a testimony to the young people of the time who in those crucial days of liberation were able to valorise what united them and not what divided them, because they understood that only by making the reasons for being together prevail could they fully grasp the richness and beauty of differences, writing a fundamental page in the history of our country.
The Prefect, recalling the 20 months from 8 September 1943 to 25 April 1945 which saw Salerno as a protagonist in Italy, because the foundations for the future of the Republic and the Constitution were laid here, highlighted that “on April 25, 1945, freedom, peace and independence were regained and the country was reunited. It was in Salerno that the foundations on which the Republican Constitution would then be founded were laid, with the decision to elect the Constituent Assembly by universal suffrage. Italy has been rebuilt on the values of our Constitutional Charter, first and foremost respect for human dignity, equality and peace. Today more than ever, while the winds of war are blowing around us, we are all called upon to forcefully affirm those ideals of peace and solidarity that united our Founding Fathers.”
