Rome, March 15 (LaPresse) – "I feel honored to receive this recognition, and I emphasize the significance that Gorizia’s role as a protagonist in the European project holds at this moment. Gorizia is experiencing an extraordinary year, as it shares the title of European Capital of Culture with Nova Gorica. This is a historically significant moment capable of having profound effects on the future of Europe. President Pahor and I have been fortunate to witness the transformation of a border into a place of meeting and sharing. A freedom of movement and fraternity, whose credit is not due to individuals or institutions alone, but to our civil societies that have been able to rebuild the ties broken by the tragic events of the Second World War and earlier years. Today, we have mature societies, grown in democracy, with the antibodies against the viruses of nationalism that have caused so much damage. Citizens are united in the belief that the horrors and the sense of revenge should give way to reconciliation. And so Gorizia and Nova Gorica have become vehicles for this goal, transforming geographical proximity into an opportunity, also for the values represented by the European project. The border, once a hostile place, now becomes a place of opportunity and growth, and Friuli can represent a laboratory of ideas for cross-border culture." This was said by President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in Gorizia during the ceremony for the 'Santi Ilario and Taziano – City of Gorizia' Award, in which he was joined by the former President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor. "We must build a future of peace. The dangerous alternative to this Italy-Slovenia-Europe project," he added, "we have known in the past in all its dramatic consequences."
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