The feelings of “joy, pride and belonging” that it can give sportwill be relived with the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella said this in his end-of-year speech. “Sport – stated Mattarella – has a place of great importance in our album. Unforgettable stories and athletes. The protagonists of the 1960 Rome Olympics, in which Italy was the first to introduce Paralympic participation. Sport, therefore, has contributed to the growth of the country, to giving us moments of joy, of pride, of belonging. As always happens when listening to the Italian anthem resound at an awards ceremony. All of this will be renewed once again with the Milan – Cortina. The spread of sport, in addition to the message of peace, friendship and inclusion it expresses, is a powerful antidote to youth violence and drugs.”
“These eighty years are like a large mosaic, the full meaning of which we can grasp only by moving away from the individual pieces that compose it. Obviously, gaps and contradictions should not be ignored, but we were a society with a low level of education, with high emigration rates”.
“The unity of political and social forces” made it possible to overcome the “night of the Republic”, that is, the season of massacres and terrorism. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella said this in his end-of-year speech in the passage dedicated to retracing the 80 years of life of the Republic. “Other images, this time dramatic – said Mattarella -. The massacres. Terrorism. We remember the faces and names of the victims. Magistrates, journalists, men from the institutions, members of the police force. And then many, too many young people who fall at the hands of ideologies that make violence their only tool. It will be called the night of the Republic. But Italy prevails. Institutions prove stronger than terror. And they are thanks to the unity of political and social forces, capable of defending the founding principles of the Republic”.
“We have become one of the strongest countries in manufacturing and exportscapable of enhancing the genius of creativity in many sectors. We are appreciated all over the world for our lifestyles, for the beauty of our territories, for the artistic treasures we guard. For the culture of food and winewhich becomes an international heritage”.
“Italy is a very important player on the international scene, also thanks to the contribution that our military they have given and give to the construction of security and peace. Here too, a path with high costs, starting with the sacrifice of our airmen on a humanitarian mission in Kindu, Congo, in 1961″.
