Exercising democracy isn't procedural matter - Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 3 - President Sergio Mattarella said Wednesday that exercising democracy is not merely a procedural matter.
    "The exercise of democracy, as we have seen, is not reduced to a mere procedural aspect, nor is it consummated merely by the irredeemable expression of one's suffrage at the ballot box on election occasions," he said- "It presupposes the effort to elaborate a vision of the common good in which - because they are inseparable - individual freedoms and social openings, the good of freedom and the good of shared humanity are skilfully intertwined. Nor is this a matter limited to state spheres'.
    The head of State also stressed the importance of democracy not violating minority rights and the essential requirement that everyone should take part in the life of institutions.
    He also said that it was important to fight against "the people who are illiterate when it comes to democracy".
    "Democracy is not exhausted in its rules of operation, without prejudice to the indispensability of defining and respecting the 'rules of the game'.
    Because - as Norberto Bobbio recalled - the minimum conditions of democracy are demanding: generality and equality of the right to vote, its freedom, alternative proposals, the irrepressible role of elective assemblies and, last but not least, limits to majority decisions, in the sense that they cannot violate the rights of minorities and prevent them from becoming, in turn, majorities".
    "Don Lorenzo Milani urged to 'give the word', because 'only language makes equals'. To be alphabets in society. The Republic has come a long way, but the task of ensuring that everyone takes part in the life of its society and its institutions never ends. Every generation, every epoch, is awaiting the test of 'literacy', of becoming literate in the life of democracy. A test, today, more complex than ever in today's technological society.
    "Fighting so that there can be no 'illiterates of democracy' is a primary, noble cause that concerns us all. Not only those who hold responsibility or exercise power. By definition, democracy is an exercise from below, linked to community life, because democracy is walking together'. (ANSA).