Via D'Amelio, Meloni in Palermo but will not be at the torchlight procession. Mattarella: «Barbaric massacre»

Thirty-one years have passed since the Via D'Amelio massacre : on 19 July 1992 Paolo Borsellino and 5 escort agents (the 24-year-old from Sestu Emanuela Loi, Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina) were murdered by the hand of Cosa Nostra under the judge's mother's house. A stolen Fiat 126, containing 90 kilos of remote-controlled Semtex-H, was blown up in front of number 21 in via Mariano D'Amelio.

Several commemorations, which started early this morning: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took part in the initiative at the Lungaro barracks in Palermo. After a greeting with the police chief Vittorio Pisani, he had a meeting and conversation with Manfredi Borsellino, a policeman and son of judge Paolo. He then placed a laurel wreath for those killed in the mafia massacres, stopping for a conversation with family members. Then she moved to the cemetery of Santa Maria di Gesù, to pay homage to the tomb of the Borsellino family.

The anti-mafia commitment will never end, because "the fight against the mafia is part of us, it is a cornerstone of our identity, it is the moral question that guides our daily action". Thus the premier in a letter to the Corriere, defining " the attempt of some to exploit my impossibility - given by other concomitant commitments - to participate also in the traditional torchlight vigil of Palermo , in which I have always proudly taken part, is cloying".

In fact, Meloni will not be present "for security reasons", except for last-minute counter-orders, at the traditional torchlight vigil organized every year by the right and which will start at 8 pm from piazza Vittorio Veneto to reach via D'Amelio. However, FdI sources do not clearly exclude that the premier does not make a trip to via D'Amelio during the day. In via D'Amelio Elly Schlein for a minute's silence together with the red agendas of Salvatore Borsellino, brother of the murdered judge, at the exact time of the explosion 31 years ago: 4.58 pm. In the place of the attack, Schlein also found the demonstrators of the procession promoted by the CGIL and other left-wing associations and movements with the slogan "Enough of the state-mafia".

«On the anniversary of the Via D'Amelio massacre - the note from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella - the Republic bows down to the memory of Paolo Borsellino, a magistrate of extraordinary value and courage, and of the agents of his escort - Emanuela Loi, Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina, Claudio Traina - who died with him in the service of democratic institutions". "That barbaric massacre - adds the Head of State - carried out with inhuman ferocity, struck the entire Italian people and remains indelible in the civil conscience ".

(Unioneonline/D)