Messina, 22 Feb – Yet another insult to the memory of those who shed their blood in war. It happened to Messina, where the monument to fallen of the Masotto Battery has been daubed with a writing that is shameful to say the least: “Fuck the Homeland”.
As reported by Southern Gazette, they would have been the anarchists the authors of the infamous defacement on the sculptural group dating back to the end of the nineteenth century. The group would have acted at night, as usual, in view of the imminent commemoration of the Battle of Adwa, scheduled like every year on March 1st. The reaction of mayor of Messina Cateno De Luca it didn't take long to wait: “Ofsulting the memory of the heroes who lost their lives to allow you to be born and blaspheming denotes that you are ungrateful and without a shred of humanity”. The mayor specified that there will be immediate intervention by the municipal company Messina Servizi to erase the graffiti.

The monument was created by the sculptor Salvatore Buemi and cast at the Royal Foundries of Turin and inaugurated on 20 September 1899 in the presence of His Royal Highness the Duke of Aosta. Even the president of the National Association of the Mutilated and War Invalids, Messina section, wanted to comment on the incident on the pages of the Journal: “Evidently the author of the gesture lacks the basics that are there the principle of sacrifice of Italians who gave their lives for the good of their homeland. The havoc committed undermines the honor and dignity of those who, with a great spirit of self-sacrifice, were seriously wounded and fell in war without even thinking that among them there are also soldiers who, with their sacrifice, they have allowed the author of this ignoble act to be free“.
Cristina Gauri
source – https://www.ilprimatonazionale.it/cronaca/patria-anarchici-sfregiano-monumento-caduti-messina-105745/