46 years after Ustica massacre, Mattarella calls truth an irrenounceable duty as investigation risks closure

The President's message

Forty-six years after the DC9 Itavia plunged into the Tyrrhenian Sea, President Sergio Mattarella described the tragedy as an indelible mark on the Italian Republic. In a message released on the anniversary, he said the day is one of reflection and memory, with thoughts of closeness and solidarity going first to the families of the victims, torn by an unacceptable event and a profound pain that time cannot ease.

“The reconstruction of what happened remained nebulous for a long time, yet the path of truth-seeking has been followed and has led to significant results. Piecing together what happened over the Tyrrhenian Sea on that tragic 27 June 1980 remains an irrenounceable duty.”

Mattarella noted that many bodies never found burial, and he stressed that the Republic cannot evade the duty of full reconstruction, however enormous the difficulties.

Families demand political intervention

Daria Bonfietti, president of the association of the victims' families, used the commemoration in Bologna to launch a sharp appeal to the government. She described the prosecutor's request to shelve the case as a defeat for the judiciary, for justice, for truth, and for the history of the country itself. The Rome prosecutors had admitted, she said, that judicial instruments (investigations, international letters rogatory) had not sufficed to identify the material perpetrators of the downing.

“We expect that the last piece of truth be ascertained. Knowing for certain that the Itavia DC9 was shot down inside an episode of aerial warfare, we cannot accept that the case be archived without having found the material authors. If the judiciary cannot succeed, then politics must succeed; my country's government must move in a far more substantial way to demand answers from friendly and allied countries.”

Bonfietti had written to Premier Giorgia Meloni on 19 June asking the government to oppose the archiving through the State Attorney's Office, but she said she had received no reply. Elly Schlein, secretary of the Democratic Party, backed the families, stressing that besides grief and closeness, they are owed the duty of justice.

The legal deadlock and government response

The latest investigation was reopened in 2008 after former President Francesco Cossiga indicated the French as responsible for shooting down the DC9. Now, the Rome prosecutor's request for archiving is moving forward, but Palazzo Chigi announced that the government, through the State Attorney's Office, will oppose it. The executive noted that, at this stage, it is not yet possible to file a civil party claim, as the proceeding remains in the preliminary investigation phase.

The next hearing, with the intervention of civil parties, is scheduled for 30 September, and a decision on the archiving request is expected by the end of the year.

Commemorations in Bologna

In Bologna, the city from which the flight departed, a ceremony at the town hall gathered families and institutional figures. President of the Chamber Lorenzo Fontana said that preserving memory is a duty and a collective commitment, adding that the passage of time does not lessen the need to continue the search for truth with determination. Senate President Ignazio La Russa renewed the commitment of institutions to keep memory alive and pursue the full truth.

Fontana and La Russa joined Mattarella in offering their personal closeness and that of their respective chambers to the families of the 81 victims who perished on 27 June 1980.