Today is 1st May, celebration of all workers, and I would like to wish you all the best through former President Sandro Pertini’s words.
“Italians are a generous, hard-working people, only asking for work, a home and to be able to take care of their loved ones’ health. They do not ask for heaven on earth. They ask for what every people should have”.
Today, Sandro Pertini’s words take on even more important significance, at a time when we are facing one of the most difficult chapters in our history.
A time when many families and workers fear their future and also their present.
Today, 1st May, on International Workers’ Day, we have the duty to tell ourselves that these concerns cannot and will not go unheeded.
Work is every human being’s sacred right, a right guaranteed by our Constitutional Charter. In recent years we have seen people fall ill because of work, lose their lives because of work, cry but also smile for work, when they have seen their rights recognised after so many battles.
To all these people today goes my thought and that of a united country, that of a strong nation. But a special thought, at this moment, goes to all those who in the darkness of the lockdown have continued to keep the engine of Italy running. To those who, for example, have allowed millions of families to eat and go shopping.
My thoughts also go to those who have watched and continue to watch over our roads, day and night, strong of their young age and courage, like the guys from Strade Sicure, men and women in uniform who make us proud every day.
Thanks also to those who guarantee safety throughout the country, with great competence, commitment and spirit of sacrifice, risking their lives, like our brave Carabinieri.
But my thoughts also go to all the military and police forces and then to another army, made up of people who, like no other in this crisis, have fought on the front line, in the trenches, in hospitals. Working excruciating shifts, 24 hours a day. They are our White Forces: doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, researchers. Some of them have lost their lives to save others’. If we are restarting today, it is thanks to them.
Then there are mothers, because no one says so, but being a mother is also a job, perhaps one of the toughest. And grandparents, who have worked for decades and now rightly ask for the presence of the State. They are figures that are often invisible, that nobody notices but essential for our country, like our hauliers, who work every day in the shade and have allowed Italy to continue to stand on its own feet this month. Even without them we would never have made it.
A final virtual hug goes to all those who still do not have a job, to those who live among a thousand difficulties and sometimes into despair. The State is there and I assure you that it will do its best for each of you.
Happy 1st May Day
We always hold our head high, long live Italy.
