The procession commemorating the massacre of 2 August 1980 in Bologna, when a bomb explosion in the waiting room of the central station killed 85 people and injured over 200, began amid applause.
Present for the government was the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi. The victims' families parade with the traditional white gerbera pinned to their clothes. At the back of the procession also the collectives, with some Palestinian flags.
«I was here 44 years ago and I survived the bomb. I was sitting outside the station. I wasn't far from the wall that collapsed, but I was never inside the waiting room. I still have before my eyes the images of the people injured and dead from the explosion", is the memory of Bo Strandberg, professor at Lund University, who is among the survivors of the massacre. «There were so many people lying on the ground, the doctors looked at them and had those who died taken onto the buses - added Bo Strandberg with his voice breaking with emotion - I would have liked to be in their place and I would have liked them to be standing and alive at my place. I felt guilty for having survived." «For me it is the second time here at the celebrations of August 2nd in Bologna. In recent years - he continued - I have undergone a course of therapy and my therapist advised me to be here together with the families of the victims and with those who suffered from what happened after that 2 August".
Among the various messages also that of the President of the Republic: «The dead, the images of the devastated Bologna station, the ferocious attack on the coexistence of Italians, left an indelible mark, on 2 August 1980, on the identity of the Republic and on the conscience of the Italian people. Memory is not only a duty but is the conscious expression of that citizenship expressed in the constitutional values that terrorist violence wanted to attack and destroy." «One of the most tragic events in our republican history took place in Bologna. An incurable wound, a permanent warning to be delivered to the younger generations together with the values of the democratic response of our homeland, which have allowed redemption and, in the unity of our community, the safeguarding of the common good", adds Sergio Mattarella.
And also the thoughts of Minister Piantedosi: «The memory of that tragic day renews and strengthens in all of us the awareness of the value of social cohesion and solidarity. We must continue to work together with determination and unity to ensure a future of peace and security for all. We must continue our commitment to ensuring that the families of innocent victims are given due recognition for the pain and suffering they have paid. On this issue, Parliament has significantly accelerated the examination of bills which aim to broaden the range of beneficiaries of economic benefits for victims of terrorism, but also to simplify the procedures for submitting requests for the granting of benefits. . Bill which shows the broad agreement of all political forces and the maximum support of the Government", he said.
(Unioneonline/ss)
