(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 19 - Integration is a powerful factor promoting security, President Sergio Mattarella said on Tuesday at the national assembly of retailers' association Confesercenti.
    "The presence of companies led by immigrant citizens is growing.
    "Trade is also driving integration, a powerful factor of security", the president stressed.
    Speaking about a decline in household consumption in the first semester of this year and concern over a climate of low confidence mentioned by the national president of Confesercenti, Patrizia De Luise, Mattarella said it nearly looked like the "positive fundamentals of the economy appear to be unable to balance the effects of a political and institutional conflictual climate".
    "Our system is something more than a set of laws and formalities.
    "Democracy is substance", which expresses "social development where freedom, equality, fairness represent an objective and the spirit of initiative is encouraged by non-invasive institutions" and by powers that are not centralizing.
    "With this precious baggage" it is possible to face the future, said the president. (ANSA).