CREMONA. «This visit of mine is intended above all to express solidarity for the sufferings suffered. But, alongside this, the confidence for the recovery that has begun, in the belief that the recovery in this territory, marked by cultural tradition, by great productive dynamism and also by this strong sense of community, will certainly be fast and effective “. Words of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on a visit to Cremona, where a plaque in memory of the victims of Covid was discovered in the Piazza del Duomo.
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The head of state, also to give a signal of a return to a prudent normality, returned to the streets gathering the applause of citizens, albeit spaced and with masks.
Mattarella, in his speech at the University of the Sacred Heart, had in particular words of great attention to young people: “We have a debt towards future generations, and it is not just the financial one – he said -. It is a debt that is expressed towards young people, with the need to adequately design the future of our children. Avoiding the temptation to be locked up in the ephemeral and exclusive consideration of the present moment, an ephemeral condition that ignores the past and history and neglects the future. There is a need for our country to think of young people in order to give them an adequate future ».
Many themes were touched upon, always in the spirit and with the thought of “rebirth”: “The need and the goal – said the president, for example, broadening the boundaries and themes – is to provide food for all, without impoverishing land, without robbing it to pass it on in good health to future generations in a condition that is strongly felt here. This is a condition that must be remembered with great determination because this also falls within the awareness of the debt that one owes to future generations ».
Mattarella then defined the collaboration between public and private (thanks to which the university campus of Cremona was born) “a precious condition, a need that must be felt for every problem that concerns our country at this time of recovery”. The decisive challenge at this juncture “is quality”, he pointed out. “At this moment, in this contingency, collaboration between all the realities of the country is essential to define in the best way, to promptly and efficiently implement the programs resulting from the Next Generation of the EU. Their timely, fast and effective implementation requires the contribution of all the energies of the country ».
The President of the Republic, alongside the governor of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana. discovered the memorial stone in memory of the victims. «For the Cremonese, for the Lombards and for all of us Italians – said Fontana – the square is an element that connotes and characterizes community life, it is a meeting place for all generations, from children to the elderly, it is a metaphor for the city. The memory of the citizens of Cremona is entrusted to the heart of this wounded but at the same time still vital city. In its profound sense of community, in the solidarity shown in recent months and in the strenuous search for a future of well-being and prosperity ”.