President of the Republic of Italy Giorgio Napolitano participated with President of Regione Stefano Caldoro and Mayor Luigi De Magistris in the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the Four Days of Naples. President Napolitano honoured the city and the victims with a laurel garland in the courtyard of the Maschio Angioino Castle and, later, he spoke in the Sala dei Baroni.

The President emphasised: “In Italy, as in Europe, nowadays more than ever, the rude comparisons between a virtuous North and a deployed South that is a burden for the nation as for the European Union cannot stand. I am saying that, not as a Neapolitan citizen who when was very young experienced all the troubles of his city and his people during the war and the post war period, but every single word comes as a representative of the Unity of the Republic”. 

Mr Caldoro commented on the speech of President Napolitano and said: “Mr Napolitano has always been reporting about this problem, namely not only that the South is not a burden, but also that virtuous examples should be acknowledged”. The Governor pointed out that “those who change, who improve the situation” should be awarded wishing a “fund re-balancing, since it is clear that you cannot do the same as in other countries if you have less public transfers”.