There was great participation in the march organized on the occasion of theThe fifteenth anniversary of the Viareggio massacre which took place il June 29, 2009. The city rallied around the families of the 32 victims. A thousand people took part in the walk included in a program packed with events.
From Mass to Procession
The mass in the morning at the Misericordia cemetery, celebrated by the archbishop of Lucca Monsignor Paolo Giulietti, with all the parish priests of the city, present the deputy mayor ValterAlberici representing the municipal administration; in the afternoon, at 6.30 pm, “Non c’è mai silenzio” a four-voice reading with Elisabetta Salvatori, Marco Azzurrini, Luca Barsottelli, Fabrizio Brandi at the Fishermen’s Church on the southern quay of the Burlamacca Canal in the Darsena in Viareggio from where , at 9 pm on Saturday 29 June 2024, the commemoration procession moved through the city streets.
The stop at the Casina dei Ricordi
Before arriving on the street Ponchielli and the Casina dei Ricordia stop at the headquarters of the Green Cross in via Garibaldi, which suffered damage to the garage and to some ambulances on the night of the massacre. At the end of the procession, the families of some of the victims at work or road accidents were invited to speakMatteo Valenti (who died at a very young age at work), Elisa Pezzini, Aurora Francesconi, Valentina Prisco, Alessandro Cecchi, Emma Genovali and Leonardo Brown, the representatives of the “Every Time” association, founded by Luca and Jan’s family and friends against theabuse of carrying weapons and firearmsthe family members of Manuele Iacconi, killed by blows with a helmet on a festive evening.
The reading of the names of the 32 victims
At 11.48pm, the time of the train explosion, the 32 names of the victims were read, right at the “Casina dei Ricordi”. Daniela Rombi, president of the association “The World I Would Like” underlined: “I had promised to my daughter Emanuelawho is no longer here along with 31 other innocent people and over one hundred injured people, who wanted to know what happened in Viareggio that night, I owed it to her, and in Viareggio that has never left us alone. We family members are still waiting for the publication of the reasons for the second sentence of the Court of Cassation which refers to the three-way appeal to redetermine the sentences, after the 20th we will also think about this – he said – because we can no longer wait. The top managers of the companies involved in the massacre have been sentenced, but now we are looking for a way to avoid having them go to prison.”
Mattarella and safety at work
Many messages of remembrance for the occasion. “Viareggio was wounded by the consequences of a railway disaster which, today as then, seems unacceptable to us”, wrote the head of state Sergio Mattarella in a message who reiterated once how the “transport safetysuch as that at work, is an indicator of civility that must prevail over any logic of profit.”It is not possible to deviate from the acquired standardsIndeed, the level of security must be raised through more effective controls and technologies and a general growth in awareness”.
Condolences from the Presidents of the Chamber and Senate
The presidents of the two houses of Parliament also remembered the massacre. Is Ignazio La Russa That Lorenzo Fontana. “I would like to remember the 32 victims with deep emotion and extend my heartfelt embrace to their families and to the entire community of Viareggio”, wrote the President of the Senate on social media, who then thanks “Il mondo che would like” for their passion and generosity which have always characterized his tireless civic, social and cultural commitment alongside families, citizens and institutions so that the pain, fear and dismay of a tragedy that we cannot and must not forget continue to guide us in building a safer future”.
Condolences also from the President of the Chamber who, in a note, underlines how the railway massacre remains “a constant reminder of the importance of safety, prevention and maintenance of infrastructure”.
The posters, the video and the project of a museum
With the anniversary of Viareggio, the Tuscan parliamentarians of the Democratic Party relaunch the proposal (presented a year ago in Parliament) to establish a museum “dedicated to the memory of the victims with the aim of promoting railway safety. The museum structure would be managed by a special Foundation and subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Culture”.
To remember this massacre, some people have created posters and a video with 32 candles placed on a heart. Family members, workers, citizens once again they were all united and on the beach on several flagpoles the Italian flags were at half-mast as a sign of mourning, as on the flagpoles of the institutional buildings.
