Italy's Republic Day Turns 80: Mattarella Opens Quirinale to the People, Warns of 'Regressive' Global Order

A 'People's Festival' at the Presidential Palace

Italy's 80th Republic Day celebrations took on a distinctly popular character this year, as President Sergio Mattarella cancelled the traditional exclusive evening reception in the Quirinale gardens. Instead, the grounds were opened to approximately 1,500 people representing the country's most vulnerable groups—children, the elderly, and people with disabilities—along with their caregivers and volunteers from various associations. The president spent the warm morning shaking hundreds of hands and listening to citizens, many of whom urged him to "resist." The most touching moment came when a little girl named Sofia, who had recently become a viral sensation after preferring Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner over Russia's Daniil Medvedev at the Rome Internazionali, ran to embrace Mattarella, creating an emotional scene captured in photos and selfies.

Strengthening the structure of trust between institutions and citizens, reviving in each the most authentic sense of democratic participation, is a persistent task in the life of the Republic.

The 1946 Turning Point

In his message to Italy's prefects, Mattarella recalled the historic significance of June 2, 1946, when Italians voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a Republic after twenty years of Fascism and the devastation of war. The president highlighted that the vote laid the foundations for a new civil pact built on the principles of freedom, equality, and solidarity, driven by an intense thirst for peace. He placed special emphasis on the role of women, who were called to the polls for the first time in Italian history, both in that year's local elections and in the June 2 consultations that chose the state's constitutional order and elected the Constituent Assembly.

The Republic was born from a concerted and sincere exercise in democracy. The protagonists were the Italian people, who flocked to the polls with extraordinary participation and composure.

A Sharp Condemnation of War

Speaking to the diplomatic corps in the Salone dei Corazzieri before a concert by the Rome Opera House orchestra, Mattarella issued a stern warning about the deteriorating international situation. He condemned what he called a "regressive tendency" in the multilateral order, identifying Russia's "unjustifiable" invasion of Ukraine as a precise accelerator of this decline. The president stated that Italy feels the cause of Kyiv's independence and freedom as its own. He also sharply criticized Israel's military actions, saying its army was striking the Lebanese population "brutally and indebitably," and warned that the war ignited by the United States and Israel in Iran risks "radiating across the entire region," creating a "sadly evident chaos."

Bad practices quickly gather followers.

A Multimedia Spectacle Across Italy

The evening celebration, titled "I volti della Repubblica" (The Faces of the Republic), was organized for the first time outside the Quirinale palace, in the square below. The two-hour show, broadcast live on Rai Uno starting at 9:15 PM, was narrated by actor Francesco Pannofino with texts by writer Maurizio De Giovanni and historian Agostino Giovagnoli. The production divided eighty years of republican history into eight blocks, one for each decade, covering the post-war Reconstruction, the economic miracle of the 1950s, the Years of Lead, the collapse of the First Republic, and Italy's integration into Europe. Singer Gianni Morandi performed a reinterpretation of Francesco De Gregori's "La storia siamo noi." To bring the commemoration closer to citizens across the country, 23 cities set up maxi-screens in their main squares to broadcast the event live from Rome.

Anchored to Constitutional Values

Mattarella reiterated that the Italian Republic remains firmly anchored to the values of peace, independence of peoples, human dignity and rights, and international cooperation—principles he said are now "gravely under attack." He recalled that the Constitution's solid foundations include the repudiation of war as a means of settling international disputes and the choice to share sovereignty with other peoples on equal terms, which led to Italy's membership in the European Union and supranational organizations. The president stressed that the future of the country depends on the ability of public officials to listen, intelligently interpret emerging social dynamics, and show sensitivity to situations of hardship and fragility.