"For the past twenty-three years, the date of the 1956 Marcinelle mining disaster has given rise to the National Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Labor in the World. The scale of the tragedy that devastated 262 families sixty-eight years ago - 136 of them Italian - has given it a very strong symbolic charge. What happened at the Bois du Cazier is therefore a reminder of the memory of the sacrifice of all Italian workers who died abroad in the performance of their professional activities and of those who brought the contribution of their industriousness to countries even far away". This was stated yesterday by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Marcinelle tragedy and the 23rd National Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Labor in the World. "From its very first article, the Constitution of the Republic establishes an inseparable ideal bond between democracy and labor. Full respect for the dignity of workers is a fundamental principle of it, affirmed also at the international level; a goal that, however, has not yet been fully achieved. Carrying out one's work activity in safety is the first elementary condition," the Head of State continued, “Marcinelle and the other tragedies involving Italian migrants in the five continents still constitute an inescapable warning to promote the dignity of work, an inalienable value of the identity of our community. To those who lost family members, friends and colleagues, victims of labor, at the Bois du Cazier and in other parts of the world, I renew the expression of the Republic's feelings of closeness and solidarity”.