Italy has made a slight change to the text of its national anthem and removed the word "Yes" (si) from the end of a verse calling Italians to fight, Reuters reported, citing government officials, BTA reported.
In recent weeks, the General Staff of the Italian Army issued an official instruction on the change, in accordance with a presidential decree published in the State Gazette in May. Before the latest change, the anthem, titled "Italian Brothers", ended with the phrase: "We are ready to die, we are ready to die, Italy has called us! Yes!".
The news of the removal of the last word was not announced by the government. The information was confirmed by representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the office of President Sergio Mattarella, after the newspaper "Fato Quatidiano" reported today about the change in the lyrics of the anthem.
A representative of the presidential office said that the change was not made for political reasons, but "for reasons of purity, removing an addition to the original text".
"Italian Brothers", as the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni bears the name, is a text written by the poet Goffredo Mamelli in 1847, before the unification of Italy. Although the word "Yes" is absent from Mamelli's lyrics, it is recorded in the original score of the anthem, whose music was composed the same year by Michele Novaro.
Photocopies of the original text and the score were published on the government website.