The secular funeral ceremony of Giuliano Amato, President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court, ended with applause at the last speech. Giorgio Napolitano in the Chamber of Montecitorio.
The first to exit were family members, including his wife Clio, his son Giulio, and his granddaughter Sofia. Then came the foreign guests, whom the parliamentarians applauded as they left.
Emmanuel Macron and François Hollande followed the entire ceremony without using headphones for translation, which Steinmeier instead preferred. The ceremony lasted just over the scheduled hour and twenty minutes. Parliamentarians remained in the chamber to allow for the ceremonial protocol to take place.
"Thank you, Napolitano, thank you, President." The hundred or so people who watched Giorgio Napolitano's funeral on the big screen in Piazza Montecitorio bid farewell to Napolitano's last visit to Montecitorio with repeated applause.
His son Giulio: "He fought good battles and supported the wrong causes."
"We are experiencing this moment in a spirit of unity and sharing." This was stated by Giulio Napolitano, son of the President Emeritus of the Republic, during the state funeral ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies, thanking the authorities present and the citizens who visited the chapel of rest in recent days.
Napolitano "fought good battles and supported the wrong causes," his son said, retracing his political and institutional commitment.
Sofia Napolitano is moved: a formidable and thoughtful man
"Giorgio Napolitano was a leader and a politician, a formidable man, thoughtful and caring. He was always there for us, listening to our problems with empathy and understanding, even though he was already busy with the country's problems," Sofia Napolitano said tearfully during the ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies.
"He always wrote to us, even when we didn't know how to read yet, he called us when he saw cartoons on television that he thought we would like.
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Finocchiaro recalls his attention to the role of women
"Few people remember that he will always address the political issue of the role and status of Italian women." Anna Finocchiaro, president of the Italiadecide Foundation, said this in her remarks at the secular funeral of former President Giorgio Napolitano, currently underway at Montecitorio. She then added an episode related to Napolitano's years as Speaker of the Chamber, from 1992 to 94: "In February 93, he invoked immunity from office against the Guardia di Finanza, which had been delegated by the Milan prosecutor's office to acquire documents (which were already public). In May, he convened the Committee on Rules to publicly vote on the authorizations to proceed. There's no need to comment."
Gianni Letta: "Berlusconi and Napolitano will clear the air up there."
With the death of Giorgio Napolitano, "a tormented and complex chapter in this story also closes: after Berlusconi, Napolitano, three months apart. I like to imagine that by meeting up there they can say what they didn't say down here and, once all controversy has subsided, they can clarify and find each other again in the light." This was Gianni Letta's statement, speaking at the funeral of the President Emeritus of the Republic in the Chamber of Deputies.
"In the face of a loss that I would define as republican," Letta said, "there are no divisions whatsoever: it does not erase, but rather transcends, every divergence and nullifies the cultural and political distinctions that are inevitable in a figure like President Napolitano, who, before holding the highest institutional positions with authority and prestige, was for many years a leading figure in Italian political life."
"We all bow reverently to pay homage to the memory of a man who loved Italy," Letta said.
Applause to Gentiloni who recalls the pro-European line
A long round of applause for European Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni at the end of his speech in the Chamber of Deputies for the secular funeral of Giorgio Napolitano. It was a speech with a European scope that outlined the institutional figure of the former president emeritus, recalling the Atlanticist slant of his policies.
"We bid farewell to a great president, a symbol of the credibility and strength of the institutions of the Republic, and we do so with you, President Mattarella, who embodies this credibility and strength. We bid farewell to a great reformer. For him, Europe has always been the main path. This path, your path, we will always strive to follow," said Paolo Gentiloni.
Cardinal Ravasi: "He was a righteous man, and he will shine like a star."
"The wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament; those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever." This is the phrase from the biblical book of Daniel (chapter 12, verse 3), which Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi dedicated to President Emeritus of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano during the state funeral ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies. Ravasi explained that he wanted to place an ideal "flower" on Napolitano's tomb, and that this flower is the phrase from Daniel.
Amato: "An Italian with his qualities will be slow to emerge."
"It will truly be a long time coming, if it is ever born, for an Italian to put his qualities at the service of a politics experienced as the fundamental place in which to interact with others. It is no coincidence that one of the most beautiful quotes in his speeches is from a young man sentenced to death by the Resistance, who writes to his mother: 'They made us believe,' he wrote, 'that politics is filth and the work of specialists. Instead, politics and public affairs are ourselves.' Napolitano taught us all this." This was stated by the President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court and former Prime Minister, Giuliano Amato.
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