Statement by President Meloni on National Christopher Columbus Day

Today marks National Christopher Columbus Day, established in 2004 to honour one of the greatest Italians this nation is proud to call its own.

Through his extraordinary voyage 533 years ago, Columbus gave the world another world. He devised an adventure that no one before him had ever imagined. He sailed westwards, beyond the borders of what was then the known world. A "new Ulysses", who did not suffer a shipwreck but rather succeeded in one of the most glorious endeavours of all time - an endeavour that marked the shift from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era, rewrote geography and changed political, cultural and economic relations among peoples.

Columbus's voyage laid the foundations for the unbreakable bond that unites the two sides of the Atlantic, Europe and America, and represents the core of what we call the West. Not a physical or geographical space, but rather a system of values we want to defend and preserve. Our mission is not to tear down statues from the past and erase the heroes who shaped our identity; it is to add to that history our own statues and heroes, with pride and humility.

We are now reclaiming our identity and working to strengthen it, because without that identity we cannot become great again and restore the West's role in the world.

Today, Columbus is honoured in many nations around the globe, starting with the United States. The great Genoese seafarer represents the origin of the ties that unite the Italian and the American peoples. Those ties are now more solid than ever, thanks also to the Italian American community's valuable contribution to the development, prosperity and strength of the United States.

Defending and celebrating Columbus means defending and celebrating our deep identity and what makes us so loved, appreciated and respected around the world.

[Courtesy translation]