Italy's political world on Wednesday commemorated a 1980 bombing at Bologna's railway station which marked the bloodiest act of terrorism in its post-war history.
Repeating a ceremony which has taken place every year since the bombing, thousands of Bologna residents gathered in the square in front of the station to pay tribute to the 85 people who died in the blast and the 200 who were injured.
It was at 10:25 on August 2, 1980, that the powerful bomb ripped through the waiting room at Bologna's central railway station.
It was later found to be the joint work of neofascists, members of the secret services and the subversive right-wing Propaganda-Due (P-2) masonic lodge.
Although many believe the attack was a bid to destabilize a country trying to leave behind years of terrorism, the underlying reasons have never fully emerged.
President Giorgio Napolitano sent a message in which he described the attack as a "horrendous criminal act aimed at undermining our democratic system".
Centre-left Premier Romano Prodi also sent a statement in which he said the bombing was "one of too many black chapters in the history of our country". "A deep wound was inflicted on our democracy which has yet to heal," said Prodi, who is from Bologna.
"That day must never be forgotten... We must work to ensure that truth and justice prevail and to show that the State will never give in to any attempt at destabilisation, hatred or division," the premier said.
Bologna Mayor Sergio Cofferati, who presided over the ceremony and met with families of the victims, led fresh appeals for the truth to be uncovered.
In November 1995, Italy's supreme court upheld life sentences for two neofascist terrorists, Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, who were convicted of planting the bomb.
Also upheld were lengthy jail terms for the head of the P-2 lodge, Licio Gelli, rogue operatives in the military intelligence service SISIMI and middleman Francesco Pazienza for working to sidetrack investigations into the massacre.
Fioravanti and Mambro have readily confessed to a string of murders but have always maintained they had nothing to do with the Bologna bomb.
An association representing the families of the victims of the bombing said on Wednesday that "it's time State institutions faced up to their duty of finding out who gave the orders for the attack and bringing them to justice".
Association chief Paolo Bolognesi said that "every anniversary of the bombing, solemn promises are made which are only good for being renewed the year after".
"Seven legislatures and 23 governments have come and gone and none have managed to bring the real ones responsible to justice," he said.
