The League party's leader Matteo Salvini (C) speaks to the media at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 29, 2021. Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given House Speaker Roberto Fico an exploratory mandate to verify whether the same governing majority that existed before Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned on Jan. 26 is still workable.Photo:Xinhua

Thirty years after being killed by the Sicilian mafia, iconic anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were honored with a variety of initiatives across Italy on Monday.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella presided over a key official ceremony in the Sicilian regional capital Palermo, calling for constantly renewing commitment against mafia organized crime in the country.

"In 1992, Falcone and Borsellino were killed because they had been able ... to deliver hard blows to the mafia through a rigorous investigative strategy," Mattarella said.

Falcone and Borsellino, both Sicilian anti-mafia prosecutors, were killed in two separate bomb attacks that occurred on May 23 and July 19, 1992, respectively. Falcone's wife, and most police officers escorting them, also lost their lives in the attacks. They had developed new methods of investigating the mafia since the early 1980s, reaching unprecedented results against what was the most powerful crime syndicate at the time: the Sicilian mob, or Cosa Nostra.

The day Falcone was killed, May 23, was later made an official remembrance date for the country. "Honoring them today means to renew their commitment, courage, and determination," Mattarella stressed in his address.

In the three decades following the judges' killing, many results were reached against the three main domestic mafia groups operating in Italy - Cosa Nostra, Naples' Camorra, and Calabrian 'Ndrangheta - and especially against their most violent sections.

However, their ability to penetrate the economy and the society persisted, experts and authorities acknowledge, which was why memorial celebrations and cultural initiatives to raise awareness among citizens and youth were deemed still so relevant.

Xinhua