Political celebrities from across Europe gathered in Rome for the state funeral of former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano. Top politicians such as German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French President Emmanuel Macron paid their last respects to the ex-president.
Napolitano died on Friday at the age of 98. Former Federal President Heinz Fischer represented Austria at the state funeral. His term of office coincided with that of Napolitano; the two politicians were good friends. Fischer and his wife Margit expressed their condolences to Napolitano’s widow Clio Bittoni and their sons Giovanni and Giulio.
Political celebrities from abroad included former French President François Holland, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and former Portuguese President Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, as well as the Duchess of Edinburgh Sophie.
Napolitano’s heirs were also there
Also present at the ceremony were incumbent Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni and former heads of government Giuliano Amato, Massimo D’Alema, Romano Prodi and Mario Draghi.
Numerous people gathered in front of the headquarters of the Chamber of Deputies. The funeral service was broadcast live by television station Rai 1 and shown on large screens in front of the building. Napolitano was head of state for more than eight and a half years between 2006 and 2015 – longer than anyone else.
A president for the history books
As head of state, he was seen as a guarantor of stability in Italy. The communist was the country’s eleventh president from May 2006 to January 2015 and served in numerous governments. He was the first Italian leader in Italy’s republican history to be re-elected for a second mandate.
Napolitano’s funeral ceremony is the second state funeral in Italy in three months. In June, the state funeral of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died in June, took place in Milan. Thousands of people took part in the ceremony in Milan Cathedral.
Source: Krone
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