150 Italian Mayors for Peace convene in Florence, 23 November

November 23, 2007

Over 150 Italian Mayors and hundreds of supporters gathered in the Salone delle Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio to hear from the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Many of them also spoke, as did Vice President Donald Plusquellic of Akron, Ohio, USA.  They concluded by endorsing a statement read by Mayor Leonardo Domenici of Florence.

A number of the speakers alluded to a ‘precursor’ of Mayors for Peace: a meeting of Mayors from capitals around the world organized by Florence Mayor Giorgio La Pira in 1955.  La Pira recognized the new, extraordinary threat to cities represented not only by nuclear weapons but by modern warfare itself.  His work has been an outstanding inspiration to Italian mayors and in the memory of this ‘prophet,’ Mayors for Peace will introduce a global audience to Mayor La Pira’s great vision.

The meeting heard from the Mayors of Aviano, Mr. Stefano Del Cont and Ms. Anna Giulia Guarneri, Mayor of Ghedi, who are striving to have the dozens of nuclear weapons deployed at US military airbases in their communities returned to the United States. They spoke about a national campaign “Un Futuro Sensa Atomiche” which they have launched with a coalition of 52 civil society organizations.  The aim is to collect 50,000 signatures within six month so that, under Italian law, the Parliament will be required to consider the proposition that Italy should declare itself a nuclear-weapon-free country.

Yet another initiative would take advantage of the Mediterranean Games in June 2009 to bring mayors from that region to Italy to promote the 2020 Vision and possibly the creation of a Mediterranean nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Italy, with 258 members - and growing, is now neck-and-neck with Belgium and Germany for the greatest number of Mayors for Peace members.