"Since we overthrew fascism, we have made an explicit declaration that places us on the path to democratic development. We have achieved a republican constitution, in which democratic principles are enshrined, and we have always declared that we remain faithful to those principles. [One could argue that] this is not the case in other countries [under communist regimes]. This would require a lengthy discussion. Italy is a country of great intellectual and philosophical traditions. Italian thinkers were the initiators of the great modern school of historicism: we had Gian Battista Vico, Antonio Labriola, Antonio Gramsci, and Carlo Cattaneo. The starting point of modern historicist thought is concrete analysis, reality. In the Soviet Union, China and other countries, the socialist revolution took place in conditions dictated by those circumstances, by the balance of power, by war, by attacks from all enemies, and so on. We were under Fascism, an anti-democratic and anti-national regime that had deprived us of all our freedoms [...]. We had to fight that regime with all means, and we fought, even taking up arms. We have won democracy, which is an achievement of ours, of the popular movement, of the communists, of the socialists, of the advanced democrats, and also of the Christian Democrats who have democratic opinions. We are committed to continuing along this path that the Republican Constitution guarantees us. By continuing along this path, we will succeed in laying the foundations for a new society based on freedom and social justice. :*From the television programme “'Tribuna elettorale”', Rai, 14 October 1960; transcript reported in “'l'Unità”', 15 October 1960, p. 8."