"The massacre of forty-one years ago, in the sky of Ustica, is etched in the conscience of Italians as a harrowing tragedy, which snatched eighty-one defenseless people from their lives, which threw their families into unspeakable pain, who left the Republic without a univocal truth capable of fully recomposing the framework of circumstances and those responsible ".
It is a passage in the message of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the anniversary today of the Ustica massacre.
"On the day of the anniversary - writes the head of state - the first thought goes to those who have lost parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends. The time spent will never heal the wound, but consolidates the bond of human solidarity and sentiment of closeness to those who have suffered so unjustly ".
"Alongside it - underlines Mattarella - there is a growing sense of gratitude for the civil commitment that family members have been able to express, promoting the search for truth even in the face of opaque and obstructive conduct, encouraging the men of the state who have been able to take important steps. The Republic feels the permanent expression of solidarity and the commitment to a more complete reconstruction of the facts as an imperative duty ".