ROME, JUNE 1- In his message today at the opening of the Italian National Day Concert, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella recalled how multilateralism is Italy’s true vocation. “The progress achieved by the Italian Republic in these seventy-five years has been extraordinary. We have been accompanied by a sharing of values and perspectives with the many nations with which we have cooperated. It is this dimension of multilateralism – rooted in our Constitution – that expresses our country’s true vocation: to contribute to the creation of a world at peace, in which the rights of individuals and peoples are fully implemented, in accordance with rules established by the international community”, said Mattarella.
“These rights are inalienable and indivisible. Any act of force against them damages the cause of peaceful coexistence and the serene development of relations based on international law. The conception of a common good that is more important than any particularism has led us to be firmly part of the European Union, an indispensable component of our own national identity”, the Italian Head of State said in his message on the eve of Italian Republic Day.
Festa della Repubblica is the Italian National Day and Republic Day, which is celebrated on 2 June each year. The day commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government – monarchy or republic – to gibe the country following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism. The referendum was the first vote by universal suffrage in Italy. The result of the popular consultation, 12,717,923 votes for the republic and 10,719,284 for the monarchy (with a percentage, respectively, of 54.3% and 45.7%), was communicated on 10 June 1946, when the Court of Cassation declared, after 85 years of the Kingdom of Italy, the birth of the Italian Republic.(@OnuItalia)