Today marks the 226th anniversary of "National Flag Day," the symbol of our homeland. It was January 7, 1797 when the representatives of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena and Reggio Emilia, proclaiming the Constitution of the Cispadane Republic, raised the first red white and green Tricolor with horizontal bands, the flag of their unity. Under these colors, with these sentiments, our ancestors, in the following decades, fought to achieve the unification of Italy.

Under this flag the deeds of the Risorgimento were accomplished. The Tricolor accompanied the War of Liberation and, chosen by the Constituents as the banner of the Republic, it constitutes the symbol of the unity and indivisibility of the country and of that patrimony of common values and principles solemnly enshrined in our Constitutional Charter. Values that represent the ideal and moral resource on which to draw to face the difficulties that every nation goes through.

An expression of the civic passion of the Italian people, the Tricolor expresses the will of a democratic state, open to international collaboration and close to its citizens, which pursues, first and foremost in favor of young people, the best conditions for building the future, in a climate of peace, justice, and social cohesion.

Viva il Tricolore, viva la Repubblica