Over 350,000 people celebrate Italy's memorial day for mafia victims

An estimated 350,000 people took to the streets in Italy on Monday to celebrate the 21st memorial day for innocent victims of the mafia.

National and local authorities took part in the main ceremony held in the city of Messina, in the southern Sicily region, which was sponsored by the country's largest anti-mafia association Libera.

Commemorations also took place in all the major Italian cities, including the capital city, Milan, Florence, Naples, and Turin.

Up to 30,000 people gathered in Messina alone, and 40,000 in Naples, according to the organizers.

"The slogan we have chosen this year is 'Bridges of memories, places of commitments', because we need more bridges to enlarge the people's consciousness and lead their hopes," Libera founder and leader Luigi Ciotti told the crowd in Messina.

The names of some 900 innocent mafia victims were read aloud before the people rallying in the Sicilian city, and, at the same time, in all the places hosting memorials in the country.

Those names included common citizens, many of whom children, as well as magistrates, police officers, journalists, priests, union officials, and politicians who died between 1893 and 2015 at the hands of various mafia groups in Italy.

Among the most renowned victims of mafia violence were Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, both prominent anti-mafia Sicilian magistrates killed in bomb attacks in 1992.

This year marked the 21st anniversary of such initiative, which was promoted by civil society associations since its very start.

Yet, a draft law to make March 21 as the official Day of Remembrance for Mafia Victims in Italy just passed first reading in the senate last week, and moved to the lower house for final approval.

Relatives of those killed played a major role in the memorial celebrations.

"This is an extraordinary day for all innocent victims, and for Messina as well," Piero Campagna, whose 17-year-old sister had been killed by the Sicilian mafia in 1985, said from the stage in the Sicilian city.

"To forge a cleaner and better society, we need to increase support to young people in schools, to focus more and more on the younger generations, teaching them the principles of legality," the man added, according to La Sicilia newspaper.

His sister's two killer were finally convicted only 24 years after the crime.

At the other side of Italy, in the northern city of Milan, it was a lawyer's daughter to address the people from the stage.

"My father was no victim: he was a free and active man," Francesca Ambrosoli said, as cited by state broadcaster Rai News 24.

Her father, Giorgio Ambrosoli, was murdered in Milan in 1979.

Thousands of schools were involved in the various initiatives across Italy, according to Libera. Italian media estimated over 7,000 students joined the memorial in Turin alone. Endit