• August 14, 2018, a date that marked the life of Genoa forever
  • Renzo Piano: "It will be a Genoese bridge"
  • Ponte Morandi, a survivor: I relive those bad times every day
  • The mayor Marco Bucci: the biggest problem was the bureaucracy

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August 14, 2019Everything is ready in Genoa for the commemorative ceremony to commemorate the 43 victims of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, on August 14 last year. In the shed of the new Pila 9 of the Polcevera viaduct the Municipality of Genoa organized the ceremony to commemorate the tragedy and express the condolences and solidarity of the city to the relatives of the victims.

Present were the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Council, Giuseppe Conte, the two deputy premieres Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, representatives of the government, institutions and family members of the victims. Although many family members have announced that they will not participate in the institutional commemoration.

The archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, officiated a mass in suffrage at 10 am and, after the interventions of the mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, the president of the Liguria region, Giovanni Toti, the representatives of the families of the victims and the president of the council , Conte, at 11.36, at the exact moment of the collapse, Genoa will stop for a minute of meditation. To break the silence there will be only the sound of the bells of the churches of the city and the whistle of the sirens of the ships moored to the port.

Mattarella's letter to the XIX century
On the day of the commemoration of the 43 victims of the collapse of the Morandi bridge, "that so many grief, so much suffering and so many difficulties created the industrious city of Genoa and its inhabitants", the president of the republic Sergio Mattarella writes a brief greeting on the pages del Secolo XIX, welcoming the invitation of the director Luca Ubaldeschi and the senator for life and Genoese architect Renzo Piano.

"A year has not passed in vain"
"It separates us from that tragic event a year that has not been spent in vain," writes Mattarella. "A new bridge project, linear, solid and beautiful, is ready and work has already begun on its construction. The new bridge will be able to mend, indeed, to use a term dear to plan, say mending 'the wound inflicted by the collapse, reconnecting a city broken, not only materially, in two ".

"Do not erase the pain. Italy embraces Genoa"
However, according to the president, mending, "does not mean canceling". The new bridge, in fact, "will always remember those innocent victims, buried under the rubble of a tragedy, caused by man, which could and should have been avoided. Nothing can extinguish the pain of those who have lost a family member or friend to because of negligence, omitted control, guilty superficiality, profit-seeking ". In the difficult circumstances of a year ago "it was very clear that the tragedy of Genoa was the tragedy of the whole of Italy and that the whole of Italy gathered in an ideal embrace around Genoa and the Genoese", Mattarella recalls.

"Justice to the end"
For him, returning to Genoa, on August 14 this year, means first of all: "to remember, painfully and composed, the forty-three people who were killed" to reaffirm the closeness and solidarity of the Italian republic to their families ". Each of them "had its own history, its geographical origin, a universe of relationships and affections, a face, a name. In their name we must expect justice to go all the way, without hesitation, revealing responsibility and punishing guilty ".

The presence, today, of the highest institutions in Genoa, Mattarella concludes, "has the meaning of witnessing unanimous support, not only in words, to a city and to the tenacity and courage of its inhabitants, who are entitled to economic revival and social through the development of a network of infrastructures and services capable of accompanying and enhancing their entrepreneurial spirit ".

Mayor Bucci: "Today all together"
A year has passed since the Morandi bridge broke, killing 43 people, moving the country and the world and injuring Genoa. The city has reacted, it has adapted to the new criticalities, has endured the inconveniences. And today it is called to a gesture of sharing, condolences, solidarity and closeness in honor of the dead and of all those who have and are suffering for that tragedy. Mayor Marco Bucci wants it that way. And that is why he made an appeal to all the Genoese whose message is "Let us come together, let's feel like a community". Here on social media he writes: "I invite all Genoese citizens to participate in the ceremony in memory of the victims of #poramorandi. Who cannot intervene, I ask anyway to observe a moment of recollection at 11.36, wherever they are. Let us ideally gather together for remember the people who lost their lives in that tragic event and to once again feel a united community, as we have shown in this past year.The appointment is at 10 am near the area of ​​the new Pila 9 of the future viaduct on the Polcevera ". For what he himself calls "a day of sobriety and memory".

Atlantia's top management in Genoa
The president and the managing director of Atlantia, Fabio Cerchiai and Giovanni Castellucci, arrived just before 9 am in Genoa to participate in the ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of the collapse of Ponte Morandi. The two managers entered the shed set up near the pile 9 of the new viaduct under construction, without giving any statement to the reporters present. Autostrade per l'Italia and Giovanni Castellucci are under investigation by the prosecutor's office of Genoa with accusations of multiple negligent homicide, road murder, disaster and attempted transport security.

Autostrade's open letter: "We renew our condolences"
"One year after the tragedy of the Ponte Morandi, the Board of Directors of Autostrade per l'Italia, that of Atlantia and the workers of the entire group renew their condolences and sincere compassion for the victims of the collapse and for the pain of their families ". Thus began the open letter of Aspi, published in some national newspapers and in the Ligurian newspapers, one year after the collapse of the bridge in Genoa. "These feelings - we read - will remain forever in the hearts and minds of the women and men of Autostrade per l'Italia, who in the last year have worked tirelessly to alleviate the wounds of the Genoese community, strengthening their determination to do more and more and better to manage a network that has contributed decisively to the economic development and social cohesion of our country, and in which we welcome millions of people every day ".

"Genoa in the heart. Forever"
"We are aware and deeply regretted by the seriousness of the suffering and inconvenience caused to the entire Genoese community by the collapse of the Ponte Morandi. And we felt and feel as our duty - the letter continues - to make the maximum contribution to restore normality to the daily life in the city We have tried, with humility and commitment and in close collaboration with all local institutions, to give support, support and hope to those who have been affected by the tragic event in affections, memory, work and activity The women and men of our group have and will have Genoa in their hearts, forever. "