After 20 years of Fascism, Italians marked a turning point in national history on June 2, 1945, when they voted for a Republic abolishing the monarchy, President Sergio Mattarella said Monday, the eve of the Republic Day national holiday commemorating the event on Tuesday.

Writing to Italy’s prefects, Mattarelal said: “Dear Prefects, I extend a warm greeting to you and to all those in the various regions who hold public office, animate local communities, and are representatives of civil society.

“To all those—men and women—who today celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the Republic.

“On June 2, 1946, the vote of the Italian people marked—after twenty years of Fascism, the tragedy of war, and the struggle for Liberation—a turning point in the country’s history, laying the foundations for building, on the solid foundations of the Constitution, a new civil pact, inspired by the principles of freedom, equality, and solidarity, driven by an intense thirst for peace.

“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 to choose the constitution of the state and elect the Constituent Assembly.

“Women, in particular, were called to the polls for the first time in Italian history, in the local elections that year and in the June 2nd consultations.

“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,” wrote Mattarella, in his message to the Prefects of Italy.

“The values of the Constitution live in the actions of those who place themselves at the service of the community,” he further emphasized.