A video with the recently deceased President of the European Parliament David Sassoli talking about Europe and peace, preceded by 17 tolling of bells, one for each day of war in Ukraine, resounded from the basilica of Santa Croce, opened the demonstration for peace 'Cities stand with Ukraine 'organized by Eurocities in Florence in Piazza Santa Croce, full of flags of peace and Ukraine
.
About 20 thousand people in the square as announced from the stage by Camilla Raznovich who leads the interventions from the stage.
In his speech, delivered in 2019 in Florence on the occasion of the extraordinary city council on "The legacy of Giorgio La Pira in today's Europe", Sassoli underlined: "When we have reached the end of the European construction, because we are still in a construction site and we have to keep it going, we have to write a nice sign 'Work in progress'; when in the end the European construction will be finished and so many walls will have collapsed and so much nationalist spirit will vanish to bring out how good it is to feel Italian, but without this nationalist spirit that you makes to be separate and different and divided from others, what will there be in the end?
Europe will be our cities - he added - and Florence will find itself at an advantage, because it has had a wealth of experience, of knowledge.
And she will know where to take the world and help it grow.
And to live in peace ".
Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, performed by Orchestra and Chorus of the Florentine Maggio Musicale, directed by Daniele Gatti, echoes in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence.
Choir and orchestra performed from the upper room of the basilica of Santa Croce, introduced by Camila Raznovich.
"Today we are here in this great demonstration, united on the side of Ukraine. We stand by these men and women who fight bravely every day against a brutal and unjustified invasion".
This was stated by Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, in the video message broadcast at the "Cities stand with Ukraine" event.
"On behalf of the European Parliament I condemn this aggression in the strongest possible terms - he added -. I express our solidarity with all those who suffer and with the families of all the innocent victims. Europe begins in its cities and municipalities, not we can stop saying it and believing it ".
"I address all the mayors present: you have a key role in
to ensure that fundamental freedoms and the rule of law are present in the daily life of our citizens.
We know how important your actions can be in promoting and caring for our common project and also our values and principles.
Our civilization is based on intangible values, we must be the guarantors: peace, freedom, the rule of law, they will never be negotiable ".