Mattarella: rigorous action by EU against anti-Semitism. Meloni: condemn fascist regime's complicity in persecution

The "recurrence and spread" of "manifestations of racism and anti-Semitism" is "an indication of high danger and calls for rigorous action on the part of the authorities throughout the European Union". So says President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on the occasion of the celebration of Remembrance Day at the Quirinale. The Head of State renewed to Senator Segre 'the Republic's gratitude for her precious testimony of the horrors she experienced and for her message, always marked by the rejection of hatred, revenge and violence. Dear Senator, on this solemn occasion I would like to express to you, on behalf of the Republic, our solidarity, esteem and affection in the face of attacks filled, at one and the same time, with vulgarity and imbecility. Vulgarity and imbecility: just as the manifestations of racism and anti-Semitism, which are, moreover, configured by law as crimes, have always been

 Of the lies "that there can be inequalities" and "rankings" between human beings" and that "life, dignity, rights" can "be questioned, denied, trampled upon, in the vile name of a racial or biological supremacy" totalitarianisms of the twentieth century were "nourished by it. Racism and anti-Semitism are still fed by it today. The despots, the aggressors, draw on these lies in our days,' Mattarella added. "As Italians, we recall with anguish the discrimination, persecution, deportation, and death of our Jewish fellow citizens, betrayed by the racial laws wanted by Fascism; and by so many of its followers sold to the Nazi executioners, with the complicity of the monarchy, of so many who considered themselves intellectuals, of part of the population. We cannot limit ourselves to this sentiment, however sincere and dutiful: it would be a missed opportunity. It would be a mistake'.

"In the Republic, there is no place for the poison of racial hatred, for the germs of discrimination, for the anti-Semitism that still dangerously surfaces, for those who preach violence, for those who cultivate ideologies of oppression, of oppression for those who cultivate hatred." The President of the Republic further reinforces the call for a change of cultural perspective. "Remembering the Shoah today, recalling those unspeakable horrors and the innocent victims, is not only a duty of remembrance: it means forcefully renewing our civil pact that is based on brotherhood, respect, coexistence; it means firmly reaffirming that we will never again allow indifference, fear, complicity to open the door to that or any other abyss. This ceremony is an opportunity to express, with pride and responsibility, the Italian and Republican patriotism that makes us custodians, in all circumstances and at all times, of the unique, indelible and inalienable dignity of the human person. Guardians of democracy".

The Italian Republic and its Constitution, Mattarella continued, "were born against the inhuman and bloody ideologies that had poisoned the first half of the 20th century, leaving behind mourning, devastation, indelible memories of horror. They arose from the innocent blood of those deported to extermination camps, of freedom fighters, of women and men annihilated only for what they were, for what they thought, for what they believed in".