« Allow me again, dear fellow citizens and dear fellow citizens, to turn to you, during this difficult emergency, to share some reflections. I feel the duty.
The first translates into a thought addressed to people who lost their lives due to this epidemic; and their family members.
The pain of detachment was magnified by the suffering of not being able to be close to them and by the sadness of the impossibility of celebrating the farewell from the communities of which they were part, as due. Communities that are severely depleted by their disappearance.
We are experiencing a sad page in our history. We have seen images that will be impossible to forget. Some territories - and in particular the older generation - are paying a very high price.
In these days I have spoken with many administrators and I have represented to them the closeness and solidarity of all Italians.
I would also like to express renewed gratitude to those who, for all of us, are facing the disease with tireless self-denial: the doctors, nurses, the entire health personnel, who must, in any case, ensure all the necessary materials. Many have fallen victim to their generous efforts.
Together with them I thank the pharmacists, the agents of the law enforcement agencies, national and local, those who keep the food lines, essential services and activities in operation, those who transport the necessary products, the Armed Forces.
To all of them goes the gratitude of the Republic, as it goes to scientists, to researchers who work to find therapies and vaccines against the virus, to the many volunteers committed to alleviating the difficulties of the most fragile people, to the Civil Protection who works non-stop and to the Commissioner appointed by the Government, to the companies that have converted their production into goods necessary for the emergency, to the teachers who maintain the dialogue with their students, to those who are assisting our compatriots abroad. To those who, in every way and in every role, are engaged on this front day by day.
The response so ready and numerous of doctors available to go to hospitals under more pressure, after the request of the Civil Protection, is yet another sign of the generous solidarity that is going through Italy.
I would also like to thank you all. The sacrifices of behavior that the measures indicated by the Government require from everyone are accepted with great civic sense, demonstrated to a very large extent by citizens.
For some days there have been signs of a slowdown in the growth of new infections compared to the previous weeks: it is not a fact that can cheer us up, it is still about many new patients and above all because it is accompanied by many new deaths. Even today there is a painfully high number of new deaths. However, this phenomenon suggests that the behavioral measures adopted are producing positive effects and, therefore, reinforces the need to continue observing them scrupulously as long as necessary.
Citizens' sense of responsibility is the most important resource a democratic state can count on at times like the one we are experiencing.
The collective response that the Italian people are giving to the emergency is also admired abroad, as I have seen in the many telephone conversations with foreign heads of state.
I also feel the duty to realize this: many heads of state, from Europe and beyond, have expressed their closeness to Italy. Concrete support has come from several of their states. Everyone told me that their countries made decisions following the choices made in Italy in this emergency.
In the European Union, the Central Bank and the Commission, in recent days, have made important and positive financial and economic decisions, supported by the European Parliament.
The Council of Heads of National Governments has not yet done so. This is expected to happen concretely in the coming days.
Further common initiatives are indispensable, overcoming old schemes that are now out of the reality of the dramatic conditions in which our continent is located. I hope that everyone fully understands, before it is too late, the seriousness of the threat to Europe. Solidarity is not only required by the values of the Union but is also in the common interest.
In our country, as I mentioned, very rigorous but indispensable measures have been taken, with legal norms - both at the beginning and after the phase of necessary continuous updating - norms, therefore, subject to the approval of Parliament.
Support measures have been prepared - and are currently under parliamentary scrutiny - for the many sectors of social and economic life affected. Other measures are announced.
I know - and understand well - the deep concern that many people feel about uncertainty about the future of their work. We must make every effort to ensure that nobody is left behind.
I have hoped - and continue to do so - that these responses may be the result of a common commitment, among all: political, majority and opposition subjects, social subjects, territorial governments.
Unity and social cohesion are indispensable in this condition.
One last consideration: while we are applying the tools against economic difficulties promptly and effectively, we must start thinking about the post-emergency: the initiatives and ways to relaunch our social life and our life gradually but with determination economy.
In reconstruction our people have always known how to express their best.
The prospects for the future are - once again - within our reach.
We have gone through difficult and dramatic times at other times. We will certainly succeed - together - this time too ».
