Peace Prize launched to mark centenary of Locarno Treaties

Locarno launches Peace Prize to mark its 100th anniversary Keystone-SDA

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Locarno Treaties, the Swiss city of Locarno has launched a Peace Prize in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival. This will be presented for the first time in August. An official commemoration day will also be held at the beginning of October.

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“We all need peace,” said Mayor Nicola Pini at a media conference in Locarno on Thursday. It was therefore obvious to reflect on peace and talk about peace as part of the 100th anniversary of the Locarno Treaties of 1925 – but with a view to the future, he said.

The Premio “Locarno Città della Pace” is to be awarded every two years on the traditional “Day of Diplomacy” of the film festival. However, Pini told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA that it had not yet been decided who would receive the first Premio.

The official commemoration day will take place on October 4 at the Palacinema in Locarno in the presence of representatives from politics and diplomacy. Historical exhibitions, multimedia installations, international conferences, concerts and theatre performances are also planned, according to the organisers.

‘Spirit of Locarno’

The aim of the Locarno Conference from October 5-16, 1925, was to conclude an agreement to stabilise peace in Europe. It ended on October 16, 1925, with the recognition of the borders between France and Germany laid down in the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was subsequently admitted to the League of Nations and a period of détente began in Europe.

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In the years following the conference, there was repeated talk in Europe of the “Spirit of Locarno”.

When the diplomats left the Palazzo del Pretorio in the centre of Locarno after signing the treaties 100 years ago, a crowd surrounded them and applauded them, said Rodolfo Huber, the city archivist. “It was also an applause of relief.”

Such “intimacy” during an international conference is something he knows only from Locarno, Huber said. For this reason, too, the aim was to take everyone along on the journey of the planned celebrations – residents, artists, groups and associations.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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