«The Arbëreshë communities constitute one of the most significant expressions of this friendship, also representing a completely successful story of welcome and integration. Attachment to one’s own culture, to one’s roots, to one’s own language do not at all jeopardize integration into the life of a new community and, on the contrary, contribute fruitfully to its development”. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said this while meeting the Albanian president, Bajram Begaj, together with a delegation of mayors of Italian municipalities with Arbëreshë communities.
Pluralism does not demand assimilation but values differences
«The Italian constitution, in article 6, entrusts the republic – Mattarella then said – with the task of protecting linguistic minorities: this is a far-sighted prediction of our founding fathers, aware that the republic is the result of its unity and its indivisibility, of the recognition of the valorization of the different national cultures pre-existing or present in Italy. Law 482 of 1999 implemented this principle. The protection of pluralism, the cornerstone of democracy which does not claim to assimilate differences but to recognize and valorise them, is an essential part of the founding principles of Europe”.