Carola Pessina and Vittoria Olivieri, the 12 and 14-year-old tennis players from Finale Ligure who dribbled from the balconies during the first lockdown, met one of their biggest fans: the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. “It was a great emotion – they say – but she put us at ease. And she told us: as she now takes care of Europe, she is sure that one day we will do it”.
The video of Carola and Vittoria has become a symbol of the resistance and resilience that von der Leyen herself cited in her first speech on the state of the Union in September 2020. In Rome for the Global Health Summit, the president of the EU Commission wanted to meet them to tell her in person that those images have touched her, because they are the clearest example of the spirit shown by young Europeans in the dramatic days of closure, their reaction to fear and uncertainty.
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