42 years have passed since that distant 2 August 1980, but Bologna does not forget the massacre of the central station in which 85 people lost their lives and another two hundred were injured. There are many commemorative initiatives that have already started in recent days and will experience their highlight, just today 2 August.
Bologna does not forget
For today, in fact, the running relays are scheduled 'Not to forget' and the cycling ones that will arrive from 6:30 to 8:30 between the park of the Montagnola e VIII August square. In the morning, the mayor of the city, Matteo Lepore, meets the families of the victims in the courtyard of the Palazzo d'Accursio. They also speak Paul Bolognese, president of the association of victims' families; the Minister of Education Patricio Bianchi and the president of the Region Stefano Bonaccini.
Then the procession will start from Piazza Nettuno, with family members and citizens, who will conclude his march to Central Station. From stage in piazza Gold Medals, the interventions of the authorities. At the time the bomb went off there will be the triple whistle of the train and a minute of silence in memory of victims. From the east square of Piazza delle Medaglie d'Oro an extraordinary train will leave for San Benedetto Val di Sambro, in memory of the victims of the massacre of train 904. At the same time the Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, in the church of San Benedetto in via Indipendenza will celebrate mass.
Truth and justice
The considerations of the president of the Emilia - Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini. “On Tuesday we will be in the square to honor the memory of the 85 victims and remember the more than 200 injured in one of the most brutal massacres in republican history. A memory that also wants to be testimony of a commitment to defend those values of democracy, justice and legality that precisely that massacre aimed to subvert. Today more than ever, after a sentence that a few months ago shed light on the subversive context in which it matured and on the principals, putting on paper roles, responsibilities, misdirection, connivance.
Today more than ever we ask for truth and justice. If a further, important step has been taken in this direction, we owe it to the rigorous commitment of magistrates and men of the state, together with the tenacity and firmness of the association of the families of the victims who, in recent years, have never failed. Our thanks and our gratitude go to them. Ours, of the whole regional community and of the country. Forty-two years ago Bologna and Italy were hit in the heart, but the institutions and citizens were able to respond with firmness, solidarity and unity. In the name of those fundamental values that are the basis of our civil life. And that all together we want to reaffirm and pass on as a legacy to the new generations ”.
(Photo archive italiani.it)
