Dear fellow citizens, dear fellow citizens,
I have always lived this traditional end-of-year appointment with a lot of involvement and also with a little emotion.
Today these feelings are heightened by the fact that, in a few days, as the Constitution provides, my role as President will end.
The wish I feel to address to you is therefore more intense because, to the need to look together with trust and hope at the new year, is added the need to express my thanks to each of you for having shown, on several occasions, the authentic face of Italy: the hard-working, creative, supportive one.
They have been seven demanding, complex years, full of emotions: the happiest moments come to mind but also the dramatic days, those in which difficulties and suffering seemed to prevail.
I felt next to me the widespread aspiration of Italians to be a true community, with a sense of solidarity that precedes, and accompanies, the multiple differences of ideas and interests.
In these days I have retraced in my thoughts what we have lived together in the last two years: the time of the pandemic that has upset the world and our lives.
We gather once again around the families of the many victims: their mourning has been, and is, the mourning of all of Italy.
We must remember, as an inestimable heritage of humanity, the self-denial of doctors, health workers, volunteers. Of those who worked to fight the virus. Of those who continued to carry out their duties despite the danger.
The merits of those who, trusting science and institutions, have adopted the recommended precautions and have chosen to get vaccinated: almost all Italians, whom I want, once again, to thank for their maturity and sense of responsibility.
In these hours in which the contagions return to worry and the alert levels rise due to the variants of the virus – unpredictable in the changing configurations – there is sometimes a sense of frustration.
We must not be discouraged. Much has been done.
Vaccines have been, and are, a precious tool, not because they guarantee invulnerability but because they represent the defense that allows us to decisively reduce damage and risks, for oneself and for others.
I remember the feeling of helplessness and despair we breathed in the first months of the pandemic in the face of the dramatic scenes of the victims of the virus. To the coffins transported by military vehicles. In the long run, it was necessary to confine everyone to the house. To schools, offices, closed shops. To collapsing hospitals.
What would we have given, in those days, to have the vaccine?
Research and science have given us this opportunity, much sooner than we could have hoped for. Wasting it is also an offense to those who have not had it and to those who are unable to have it today.
Vaccines have saved many thousands of lives, they have greatly reduced – I repeat – the danger of the disease.
Just think about how we spent the Christmas holidays last year and how it was possible to do it these days, albeit with caution and limitations.
The pandemic has inflicted deep wounds: social, economic, moral. It has caused inconvenience for young people, loneliness for the elderly, suffering for people with disabilities. The crisis on a global scale has caused poverty, exclusion and job losses. Often those who were already disadvantaged were forced to suffer further severe setbacks.
Yet we got up. Thanks to the responsible behavior of the Italians – even if amidst persisting difficulties that require maintaining adequate levels of safety – we have set out on the road to restart; with policies to support those who had been hit by the slowdown in the economy and society and thanks to the framework of trust aroused by the new European instruments.
A supportive response, at the height of the gravity of the situation, that Europe has been able to give and to which Italy has provided a decisive contribution.
We also found within us the resources to react, to rebuild. This journey has begun. It will still be long and not without difficulties. But the country’s economic conditions have seen a recovery beyond the expectations and hopes of a year ago. A recovery that was accompanied by a revival of social life.
Over the years, our Italy has experienced and suffered other serious sufferings. The threat of international Islamist terrorism, which has painfully claimed many victims among our compatriots abroad. The serious disasters for human responsibility, earthquakes, floods. The fallen, military and civilian, for duty. The many deaths at work. Women victims of violence.
Even in the darkest moments, I never felt alone and tried to convey a feeling of trust and gratitude to those on the front line. To mayors and their communities. To the presidents of the Region, to those who have worked incessantly in the territories, alongside the people.
The real face of a united and supportive Republic.
It is patriotism concretely expressed in the life of the Republic.
The Constitution entrusts the Head of State with the task of representing national unity.
This task – which I have tried to carry out with commitment – was facilitated by the awareness of the link, essential in democracy, that exists between institutions and society; and that our Constitution draws so precisely.
This bond must be continuously strengthened by responsible action, by the loyalty of those who find themselves carrying out a public office pro-tempore, at all levels. But it could not hold out without support from citizens.
The chronicles often focus on points of tension and fractures. That exist and should not be hidden. But above all in moments of serious national difficulty the attitude of our people to preserve the cohesion of the country, to feel part of the same destiny emerges.
Institutional unity and moral unity are the two expressions of what holds us together. Of what the Republic is founded on.
I believe that each President of the Republic, at the time of his election, feels two basic needs: to strip himself of any previous belonging and to take charge exclusively of the general interest, of the common good as the good of each and every one. And then to safeguard the role, powers and prerogatives of the institution he receives from his predecessor and which – exercising them fully until the last day of his mandate – must pass on intact to his successor.
It is not for me to say whether and to what extent he has managed to fulfill this duty. What I want to tell you is that I have made every effort to carry out my task in strict compliance with the constitutional provisions.
The Constitution is the solid and vigorous foundation of national unity. Its principles and values are, which must be lived by political and social actors and by all citizens.
And in this regard, even on this occasion, I feel I have to express my gratitude for the loyal collaboration with the other institutions of the Republic.
First of all with the Parliament, which expresses popular sovereignty.
In the same way, I address a grateful thought to the Presidents of the Council and to the Governments that have followed one another in recent years.
The governability that the institutions have helped to achieve has allowed the country, especially in some particularly difficult and demanding passages, to avoid dangerous leaps in the dark.
We find ourselves in processes of change that are becoming more and more accelerated.
Naturally we need the courage to look at reality without filters of convenience. The pandemic season has added new ones to the old inequalities. The spontaneous dynamics of the markets sometimes produce imbalances or even injustices that must also be corrected in order to achieve greater and better economic development. A still too widespread precariousness is discouraging young people from building families and futures. The sharp decline in births is today one of the most worrying aspects of our society.
Ecological and digital transitions are unavoidable necessities, and can also become an opportunity to improve our social model.
Italy has the necessary resources to face the challenges of the new times.
Thinking about the future of our society, the gaze of many young people I have met over the years comes to mind. Young people who engage in volunteering, young people who stand out in their studies, young people who love their work, young people who – as necessary – are committed to the life of institutions, young people who want to learn and know, young people who emerge in sport, young people who they have suffered from difficult conditions and are going up the slope taking a new road.
Young people are bearers of their originality, of their freedom. They are different from those who preceded them. And they ask that the witness not be denied to their hands.
To the new generations I feel I have to say: do not stop, do not be discouraged, take your future because only in this way will you give it to society.
I would like to recall the touching letter from Professor Pietro Carmina, victim of the recent, dramatic collapse of Ravanusa. Professor of philosophy and history, retiring two years ago, he wrote to his students: “Use the words I taught you to defend yourself and to defend those who do not have those words. Do not be spectators but protagonists of the history you live today. Get inside, get your hands dirty, bite your life, don’t adapt, commit yourself, never give up on pursuing your goals, even the most ambitious ones, put those who can’t make it on your shoulders. You are not the future, you are the present. Please: never be indifferent, don’t be afraid to take risks so as not to make mistakes… ”.
I make mine – with respect – these words of exhortation so effective, which also show the dedication of our teachers to their educational task.
I wish to extend an affectionate greeting and sincere thanks to Pope francesco for the strength of his teaching, and for the love he expresses for Italy and Europe, underlining how this continent can play an important role in peace, balance and defense of human rights in the changing world.
Dear fellow citizens, we are ready to welcome the new year, and it is a moment of hope. We look ahead, knowing that the fate of Italy also depends on each of us.
Many times we have talked about a new season of duties. Many times, especially in recent times, we have emphasized that difficulties can only be overcome if everyone agrees to do their part fully.
If I look at the journey we have made together in these seven years, I have confidence.
Italy will grow. And it will do so the more it becomes aware of the common destiny of our people, and of the peoples of Europe.
Happy New Year to all of you!
And to our Italy!