The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella is at the Municipal Theater of Ferrara where he participates in the inauguration of the 2022-23 academic year of Unife, the 632nd since its foundation.
The head of state was greeted by the playing of the national anthem.
In addition to the report by the rector Laura Ramaciotti, the Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini intervenes, while the inaugural address is entrusted to Patrizio Bianchi, former minister, former rector and professor emeritus of Unife, on the figure of Nicolò Copernico, who in 1503 he graduated in Canon Law in Ferrara.
Also present in the audience were former Prime Minister Romano Prodi - who had a long conversation with Ferrara-born former Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini before the start of the ceremony - the undersecretary for Culture Vittorio Sgarbi and president of the Ferrara Arte foundation, the president of 'Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini, the mayor Alan Fabbri, then Moni Ovadia, general manager of the municipal theater and the bishop Gian Carlo Perego.
"Universities all over the world are called to develop reflections that are appropriate to the conditions we have, to the changes that exist, to the new scenarios. Scenarios that make us understand how out of time
and history behaviors of power of the last century are, which lead to a war of aggression, to annex territory or to fierce competition on marginal aspects".
This was stated by the President of the Republic
, Sergio Mattarella,
speaking in Ferrara at the opening of the Unife academic year and also speaking of the conflict in Ukraine.
"These are the relevant aspects that will mark the future world. And the world is called to reflect on this. And universities must act as a vanguard in this reflection. Universities have this vocation, this role: to reflect in order to explore scenarios and indicate paths with which to face them. This is the world that young people face, this is the world that universities must help them interpret and govern", added the Head of State.
Citing the opening speech by former minister Patrizio Bianchi, dedicated to Nicolò Copernico, a graduate in canon law from Ferrara, Mattarella recalled that "at the time of Copernicus there was already a commonality of in-depth study and study,
just think that in this university there was a mingling between Copernicus, a Pole, and Paracelsus, a Swiss, a sharing of knowledge that laid the foundations of Europe, was the crucible in which Europe and its culture were formed .
This role of the university is no longer only in our today due to Europe, to our continent, it is a global need, "he said.