On the 19th of July 2023, in the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the killing of the Italian magistrate Paolo Borsellino, the Italian Agency for Youth has organized the first national scale event since their reshape of the agency.
Young people coming from all Italy, working in no profit organisations, NGOs, public services, and university associations have gathered in Palermo for a daylong event under the banner of legality and remembrance. CEIPES has proudly taken part to the event, in such an important day for Sicilian and Italian people.
During the morning, the event was introduced by Federica Celestini Campanari, Extraordinary Commissioner for the Agency, and Michele Sciscioli, Chief of the Department for Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service. Participants have been divided into four groups to participate to four simultaneous workshops: people from very different backgrounds have had the opportunity to confront and know each other, sharing information about their backgrounds and their organisations.
Later, participants to the workshops have discussed the concepts of “legality” and “active citizenship” and have tried to find the best definitions for the terms. After that, representatives from CEIPES and the other organisations have tried to list difficulties that are found in our society when thinking of these concepts, later thinking of ways in which these issues can be solved, first on local level and then on administrative and national level.
These suggestions have been later presented to the Commissioner Campanari, who, at the end of the day, summed up the proposals made by the young participants, to the Minister of Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi. During the afternoon, before this notable intervention by the Minister, many other distinguished guests have taken word, discussing the importance of events like this, in which the Italian youth can work together to oppose mafia in any of its manifestations.
Among these interviews, it is fundamental to mention Maria Carolina Varchi, Vice-mayor of Palermo; Chiara Colosimo, Chair of the Anti-mafia Commission; Antony Emanuele Barbagallo and Giuseppe Provenzano, Deputies of the Italian Republic; Sergio de Caprio, Carabinieri official; Alessandra Clemente, from the Foundation Silvia Ruotolo Onlus; Alessandro De Lisi, General Curator of the Falcone Foundation; Giuseppe Massimo Cannella, lawyer and scholar of Judge Rosario Livatino; Giuseppe Antoci, from Foundation Antonino Caponnetto; Maria Cristina Pisani, President of the National Council of Youth. The entire afternoon debate was moderated by the Director of TG1, Gian Marco Chiocci.
The event was an excellent opportunity for CEIPES to nationally propagate best practices implemented by the organization at the local level in the fight against mafias and to exchange ideas and planning with other institutions pursuing the same goal.
