In what was due to be his last New Year speech as the country's president, Sergio Mattarella on Friday thanked Italians for their "maturity and sense of responsibility" during the two years of the coronavirus pandemic. Mattarella, 80, was elected Italy's 12th president on Jan. 31, 2015, and his seven-year mandate will end in January. He repeatedly made clear he would not be available for re-election.

"In these days, I have been going over what we have lived together in the last two years: the time of a pandemic that shocked the world and our lives," he said in a 15-minute speech broadcast live from the Quirinale presidential palace. Mattarella stressed -- "as an invaluable heritage of humanity" -- the self-sacrifice of physicians, healthcare workers and all those who have committed themselves to fight the coronavirus.