Guido Carli: awards to Branca, Folgiero, Luongo and Mazzoncini

Talent combined with social commitment in all its facets. The value of 'caring'. Kindness elected as a practice to be disseminated. One year after the election of Pope Leo XIV and on the eve of Europe Day, the celebration of ethical success was staged yesterday in Rome, with the twelve recipients of the Guido Carli Prize promoted by the Foundation of the same name chaired by Romana Liuzzo. Tireless in passing on the lesson of the statesman who was Governor of the Bank of Italy and Minister of the Treasury. "The battle against indifference," he emphasised, "is at the heart of this 17th edition: we value those who cultivate hope and attention to the least, because there is no progress if someone is left behind".

Entrepreneurs and top managers such as Niccolò Branca of the famous distilleries and Pierroberto Folgiero of Fincantieri, one of the highest expressions of engineering in the country, with 230 years of history and 7 thousand ships built, paraded on the stage at the Auditorium Parco della Musica alongside the jury. Like Renato Mazzoncini of the multi-utility A2A, engaged in the complex processes of energy and environmental transition that are reshaping the national industrial system, and Mario Faro of Vivaio Piante Faro, one of the world's most renowned nursery giants, born and bred in the shadow of Mount Etna. There was also a refined tribute to the Maison Armani led by Giuseppe Marsocci, eight months after the death of founder Giorgio, the master of timeless elegance.

Medals specially minted by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, bearing the effigy of Carli, were also awarded to the Commander General of the Carabinieri, Salvatore Luongo, a life in the service of the State; to show business star Lorella Cuccarini, forty years of luminous career; to the journalist queen of "Belve" Francesca Fagnani; to the actress Anna Ferzetti, magnificent protagonist of the film "La grazia" (and much more); to Riccardo Cocciante, for the long and honourable career that has made him an undisputed protagonist of the international music scene; to Antonio and Nadia Santini, at the helm of the Michelin-starred restaurant Dal Pescatore, generations of loyal customers in Canneto sull'Oglio.

Finally, the prize-winners included Don Antonio Coluccia, under escort for his fight against crime and drug dealing in the Roman district of San Basilio, where the Guido Carli Foundation, after its projects on Caivano, has launched the transformation of a drug-dealing square into the first Agora of Kindness in Italia, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, the Prefecture of Rome and the 'people's priest' himself, accompanied by the boys of his Palestra della Legalità. 'Beauty gives opportunities,' explained Prefect Lamberto Giannini. It gives alternatives to the new generations, also paid homage with a live performance by Leo Gassmann with the song 'Naturale' brought to Sanremo.

"The Guido Carli Prize does something essential: it reminds us that behind the policies there are people, that the economy needs a soul, as Carli used to say," the executive vice-president of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto, commented in a video message, pointing out the effort underway in Brussels to "make Europe not a museum of past prosperity, but a power capable of competing and standing on its own two feet". "Taking care," the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, emphasised in a video message, "means recognising that security also stems from the quality of relations, from the ability of institutions to be close to citizens, especially in places where loneliness and degradation risk turning into new vulnerabilities. The secret? 'Feeling part of a community, moving forward by giving each other a hand,' said the mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri, opening the proceedings and claiming that the 'Jubilee method' followed for the transformation underway in the capital 'means precisely this: everyone doing their part'.