This morning, the solemn session to celebrate the 79th anniversary of the Liberation took place in the regional council hall.
Immediately after the opening, at the invitation of President Gianmarco Medusei (Lega), the Legislative Assembly of Liguria observed a minute’s silence to remember the civilian and military fallen of the War of Liberation.
In the second part of the session Guido Levi, professor of History of International Relations at the University of Genoa and director of the magazine “History and Memory” of the Ligurian Institute for the History of Resistance and the Contemporary Age, held the official speech.
The ceremony was attended by the highest civil, military and religious authorities of Liguria.
The president of the Regional Council declared: “We are united here to celebrate the solemn session, to give the right and proper emphasis to a fundamental day in the history of our country, the first step that led Italy to that institutional path that ‘has transformed it into a democratic Republic, founded on the principles of the Constitution which still today firmly protects us and elevates us to the role of a modern and free nation.
I am honored to be sitting in this chamber in my capacity as President of the Legislative Assembly, because precisely in places like this all those solemn principles are fully lived: in open political confrontation, in respect for the opponent who has a opposing idea, in mutual interest in doing everything possible to better govern all those who have chosen their representatives, whatever the flag, the coat of arms, the color, the ideal.
It is a duty to reiterate, this year too, that these values are an integral part of the work of this assembly, as established by Regional Law n.9 of 16 April 2004, the ‘Consolidated text of regional interventions for the affirmation of the values of the Resistance and the principles of the Republican Constitution’, which underlines how every institutional activity expressed in this room is inspired and implemented in the foundation of the war of liberation from Nazi-fascism, against every form of dictatorship and oppression.
April 25th is the day of everyone and not of just one part, of citizens and their representatives, of civil society: there cannot and must not be division in this celebration.
The Italy of 2024 is a country that, after almost eighty years, despite the difficulties due to the continuous challenges that arise every day, international tensions, the changes in the world economy and global markets, still continues to enjoy a “precious legacy to be protected, built by those who knew how to turn the page, rebuilding a nation from the rubble, to make it walk on its own legs following the path of Democracy and the Fundamental Principles of the Constitution”.
Professor Guido Levi has developed a reconstruction of the events of the Resistance in Genoa.
“April 25th represents – explained the prof. Levi – many things together: the end of the German occupation, the liberation from fascism after 20 years of dictatorship, the victory of the Resistance with the fundamental contribution of the Allies, a moment of popular protagonism perhaps unique in Italian history, peace after 5 years of a ruthless and bloody war, the beginning of the adventure of the new democratic Italy whose values would soon be engraved in the pages of the Italian Constitution, the hope of a better future.
Genoa and Liguria were the absolute protagonists of this affair, it was an event that had been prepared for some time, given that for the first time plans for liberation began to be discussed in the summer of 1944. The orders came from the High National Liberation Committee Italy. The moment seemed propitious, by virtue of the Allied advance along the peninsula, the liberation of Rome which took place in June and above all the liberation of Florence which was underway at that time.
Within a few weeks, however, the scenario would change and the moment of Liberation receded again and it was only with the new year that the insurrectionary plans were prepared.
The most problematic issue was represented by the relationship with the Allies, as the desire to subordinate the partisan forces to the Allies was evident. Those who had been fighting for months and had paid an enormous tribute in blood to the cause could not accept these conditions, but an agreement was reached anyway.
The insurrection broke out early, on the evening of April 23rd, on the initiative of the SAPs from the western part of the city, anxious to avert the German retreat which had begun during the morning and from the west the military operations moved towards the centre, where the groups moved first responsible for sabotaging the German mines located in the port.
On the morning of April 24th the insurrection broke out with the Sap as protagonists in the various neighborhoods of the city, and many common citizens who took up arms for the first time to make their contribution to the liberation of the city and the insurrectional plans prepared with such care by the commands changed under the pressure of events.
The act of surrender, which occurred on the afternoon of April 25, was an exceptional achievement. A unique case in Europe of a German Army Corps surrendering to the partisan forces.
The liberation of the cities was, therefore, the result of a coordinated action between partisans and allies, and the Resistance was not even just an Italian phenomenon but rather a European one, since in all, and I repeat in all, the territories occupied by the Nazi-fascist troops forms of resistance occurred in the name of those values of freedom and democracy that had been trampled upon, or in the name of a reborn national spirit which, precisely in the times of war, had freed itself from the patriotic rhetoric of fascism.
The foundations of the new democratic Italy were laid in the Resistance, whose principles and values were magnificently translated into the legal language of our Constitution in the immediate post-war period.
However, we must not forget that the Resistance was the heir of anti-fascism and was also an event that brought the peoples of the old continent closer together and brought brothers together in the fight against a common enemy, effectively closing that terrible cycle of European civil war that began with the First world war and then continued with the punitive peace of Versailles.
Many historians point to the events of the European Resistance as the roots of that process of continental integration which officially began with the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 or, the following year, with the signing of the treaty establishing the European Coal and Energy Community. ‘Steel from the representatives of France, Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries. What pushed in this direction was above all a longing for peace after the tragedy of two world wars. It was necessary to change the international order to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
Hence the importance of Article 11 of the Italian Constitution which on the one hand ‘repudiates war as an instrument of offense against the freedom of other peoples’ and on the other ‘allows, on equal terms with other States, limitations of sovereignty necessary for a system that ensures peace and justice between nations.
From the events of the Liberation we derive a great political and moral legacy, for Italy as well as for Europe, which leads us to reflect on the meaning of freedom, democracy, justice, on the need to preserve, and if possible strengthen, values and principles that represent the highest achievements of ours.”
Tags: Liguria Region solemn session everyones day April #25th
