“I wanted to be present on this occasion to testify that the state exists”. The president of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in Converano (Bari) to participate in the celebrations for the centenary of the death of Giuseppe Di Vagno, a socialist parliamentarian born in Conversano in 1889 and killed on 25 September 1921 in an ambush organized by a group of fascists, in Mola di Bari: a tribute to which the Head of State did not want to lack his support, as he said to the president of the Di Vagno Foundation, Gianvito Mastroleo.
Di Vagno centenary, a plaque in Mola di Bari to commemorate the deadly ambush. Mattarella in Conversano
Mattarella was welcomed by the mayor of Conversano, Giuseppe Lovascio, by the mayor of Bari and president of Anci, Antonio Decaro, and by the president of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano.
Inside the Norba theater, the Head of State is welcomed not only by Mastroleo himself, but also by the president of the national centenary committee, professor Franco Gallo what about teacher Paolo Bagnoli director of the Historical Review of Socialism and author of the lectio magistralis on the theme “The assassination of Giuseppe Di Vagno for Italy today”.
“A hundred years have passed and I believe that Di Vagno’s teachings have a current value today. He fought for his land, for the people, to defend a people who had rights of which he was unaware. a piece of land or a piece of bread had given up its freedom “. Decaro said this, speaking on the sidelines of the event. “Here – added Decaro – there was the prelude to what would have happened later, the political battle that leads to the physical elimination of the opponent”. “But – concluded Decaro – as Vittorio writes, ‘the physical elimination of Di Vagno had led him to rise again’. A man who with his death has become a myth that survives and makes the history of our land great” .
In his speech, President Emiliano also spoke of immigration in line with the spirit that animated people like Di Vagno over 100 years ago: “We welcome those who ask for help and asylum – aware of doing something for ourselves, of improving the community in this way. and to give to the conjugation between our traditions and those of those we welcome the task of understanding the future. Giuseppe Di Vagno, today, is therefore alive, present, current for the decisions that we will be called to take on the path that history will take us. The task that the Apulian political community assumes upon itself, here and today, before you, Mr. President of the Republic – he concluded – will be to continue this path, to never give in to simplifications and clichés, to maintain the reformist approach to political decision, based on peaceful coexistence, on science, on diplomacy, as the only weapons to give humanity a future of well-being and freedom “.
Then, speaking with the journalists, the governor said: “It is a day of great joy, President Mattarella’s attention to Puglia has never been lacking. This day dedicated to Di Vagno reminds us all of the duty we have to strengthening and caring for democratic institutions. It took little at the time to lose freedom and the ability to reason rationally and we were thrown into a terrible war “.
At the end of the ceremony, President Mattarella met the boys of the Conversano City Council who gave him a portrait made by the artist Leonardo Salvemini. A letter written by Benedetta e Angelo Cimarrusti parents of Giuseppe Cimarrusti, the policeman from Conversano who died at the age of 26 in a firefight in Verona in 2005.
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