Mattarella was speaking on the 55th anniversary of the attack that claimed 17 lives and severely injured 88 people.
The president said Italy found unity in defending the country’s constitutional values in order to defeat terrorists who wanted to subvert democracy.
He said in doing so, the country found “the path towards civil and social growth”.
“The massacre which, 55 years ago, hit Milan, in Piazza Fontana, was an expression of the subversive attempt to destabilise our democracy, giving institutions an authoritarian twist,” said Mattarella.
“A wound in the life and conscience of our community, a laceration in national history.”
The 1969 bombing has long been seen as the spark for Italy’s ‘Years of Lead’, a period of political violence.
“December 12, 1969, was a day in which terrorists intended to produce a rupture in Italian society, with bombs that were also detonated in Rome, generating chaos and a generalisation of violence,” noted the president.
Within an hour of the blast at Milan’s Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura (National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana, 16 people were injured by three further explosions which shook two areas of Rome.
Another bomb was discovered by police a few hours later inside a separate bank in Milan, near the La Scala opera house.
Officers detonated the device in the courtyard of the Banca Commerciale Italiana.
“The Republic is close to the family members of victims and feels the duty of memory,” Mattarella continued.
“The Italian people overcame a terrible trial.
“It was first of all about unity in the defence of constitutional values to defeat the subverters and to enable the resumption of progress towards civil and social growth.
“Milan was the symbol and the whole country knew how to be united,” said Mattarella, stressing that this represents a “precious inheritance and, at the same time, a permanent lesson since it wasn’t a given”.
The president went on to note that the massacre was followed by attempts to subvert reality.
“The neo-Fascist [fingerprints on] the 1969 massacre emerged with evidence during judicial proceedings, even though deviations and faulty delays prevented those responsible from being called to respond for their misdeeds.
“The pressing demand for truth made by citizens has supported the commitment and dedication of representatives of institutions.
“Truth and democracy have an indissoluble ethical connection.
“Having reconstructed our own history, even when it was most painful, was the condition to pass on the torch to younger generations who now have the role of continuing to pursue the path of civility opened by our fathers in the fight for Liberation and the Constitution,” Mattarella said.
ANSA
