is in progress, in the parliament of Romethe ceremony of the civil funeral of the Italian former President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitanowho passed away last Friday at the age of 98.

All MPs, after placing the coffin inside the chamber, remained standing for over ten minutes, while a large number of citizens watched the ceremony from a giant screen, which was placed outside the parliament building.

Among others, the Italian President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and the French President Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in Rome a little earlier, are participating in the civil funeral ceremony. At the same time, most of the ministers of the Meloni government, the Italian prime minister herself and the leaders of the political parties wanted to be “present”. Our country is represented by our ambassador to Italy Eleni Sourani.

The president of the Italian parliament, Lorenzo Fontana, among others, in his speech underlined that “Giorgio Napolitano was one of the most important figures in the institutional history of the Italian republic.”

“My father devoted himself to politics, which he considered to be something particularly serious, which had nothing to do with demagoguery and cynicism. He always worked to reduce inequalities and with the aim of supporting the development of Lower Italy”, underlined the youngest son of the late Italian president, Giulio Napolitano.