The national demonstration ""Free Italy"" promoted by Arcigay is the best response to a weak policy that seems to have lost its main duty: that of governing and giving concrete answers to people's needs.
It will be a great demonstration, not against anyone, but to reaffirm the values of freedom, civil coexistence, and pluralism for a state that is not ashamed to call itself secular.
We live in a country where political and religious figures continually question these principles..
If the cardinal Ruini and devout atheists like Ferrara oh the Catholic-ex-communists to the Bondi one day they attack the 194 and the representatives of the Democratic Party Tonini, Chiti, Binetti and the atheist-dem D'Alema While those who deem the dignity and equality of LGBT people to be of little or no interest in favor of a much broader religious sentiment of "do-it-yourself" Catholics, we want to encourage a strong, positive movement in the country. Not only to defend social and civil achievements but also to promote a new season of secular and libertarian reforms.
We ask the women's movement, associations, groups, social forces, intellectuals, people who share the need for a secular awakening in our country, to help us build a a major national event, which draws its strength from the plurality and variety of initiatives and ideas present throughout the territory. We call on all secularists, believers, agnostics, and atheists who care about safeguarding the democratic and civil prerogatives enshrined in the Italian Constitution, to join us in giving voice to the overwhelming majority of the Italian people, who do not wish to go back and be governed by third-party powers outside of our republican order.
In the next few days, an appeal document will also be launched to launch a broad membership campaign.
Aurelio Mancuso
national president of Arcigay