“Don Milani was an extraordinary figure, he sowed much more than we can imagine,” Mattarella told students at the Leonardo da Vinci Italian state school in the French capital.
The late Catholic priest spoke so much about a school for all because “a school that is available only to those that can afford it is not a school,” he continued.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Don Milani, who turned his school at Barbiana near Florence into an engine of emancipation.
“You students - from the youngest at the beginning of their schooling, to those who are concluding a course of study - represent an important reality not only for Italy and France, but also for Europe,” said the head of state.
This is because “Europe is not only the sphere our countries exist in, but it is, above all, an ideal, made up of people, experiences, affinities, values, dreams,” continued Matterella, telling the students that “it is here, more than in other places, that Europe is being built”.
Frontiers should never be a limitation but an “enrichment”, the president said, recalling how “border areas have always been very troubled places, of great mutual suffering”.
Mattarella later inaugurated an exhibition titled Naples in Paris at the Louvre, alongside French President Emanuel Macron. (Photo: ANSA)
Mattarella also reminded the students that they are studying to become citizens of an open society and that culture is the “best calling card” of any country.
Culture “is by definition a heritage to be safeguarded and developed with care and application”, the president said.
“The cultural exchange between Italy and France goes back a long way and has made a contribution to European culture,” Mattarella continued.
“Culture is the vehicle by which we travel the road to the future. Without culture one remains stationary.”
Mattarella later inaugurated the exhibition Naples in Paris together with French President Emanuel Macron at the Louvre.
The leaders also paused to admire Giovanni Bellini’s Transfiguration of Christ.
“It’s magnificent,” Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, who was also part of the Italian delegation, told Macron.
“I was born in the centre in Naples. I told the French culture minister (Rima Abdul Malak) to come to Naples and I’ll give her a tour on a Vespa”.
Macron laughed and said it was an “excellent idea”.
Mattarella, accompanied by his daughter Laura, and Macron, with his wife Brigitte, then went to the Élysée Palace for a private lunch.
ANSA
