Italian mayors and regional governors bought a page in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper to ask Germany for solidarity amid the coronavirus outbreak, saying that other states agreed to cut its debt after World War Two.

“Dear German friends, memory helps make the right decisions,” the letter says, after referring to a 1953 agreement to reduce Germany’s debt to help its post-war recovery.

It was signed by mayors from left and right-wing parties representing the northern Italian cities worst-hit by its coronavirus outbreak, including Bergamo and Milan, as well as the regional president of Emilia-Romagna.

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