Mattarella: 'Russia forcibly redefines the balance and borders in Europe'

"Russian aggression against Ukraine continues, with victims and immense destruction, and with the aberrant intention, despite ongoing negotiation efforts, to break the principle of refusing to redefine the balance and borders in Europe by force. This action was already considered irresponsible and inadmissible more than fifty years ago at the Helsinki Conference on Cooperation and Security on the Continent'. So said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, speaking at the Ambassadors' Conference at the Farnesina.

"Dangerous disinformation activities tend to accredit an alleged vulnerability of public opinion in democratic countries. Unseen but opaque centres of power are trying to establish themselves," Mattarella pointed out in his address to the Ambassadors' Conference.

"The unpredictable - and, in some respects, surprising - international situation causes disorientation. The disquiet of the resulting pessimism should not lead us to believe that the process that sees the geopolitical order we had helped to build showing ever more extensive and deep cracks, with conflicts that we thought were consigned to history forever flaring up again, touching regions close to us. As well as the emergence of new hotbeds of instability in areas where political and social fragility has now become structural, with the emergence of paradigms that see special interests prevailing that often defy international legality,' the Head of State went on to discuss the complicated and unfortunate international situation.

"Everywhere, the consequences of global phenomena, from climate change to economic inequalities and energy crises, add up to the resurgence of radicalism and extremism that sometimes make peaceful coexistence in and between states difficult. A condition that is fuelled by manipulative information flows that, in the context of hybrid conflicts conducted by various hostile means, join the internal and external fronts,' Mattarella insisted, returning to the issue of disinformation.

"It appears, to say the least, singular that, while experiences aimed at uniting states and coordinating their aspirations and activities are emerging in the international sphere, we are witnessing a disorderly and unjustified aggression against the European Union, distorting the truth and presenting it instead of as one of the successful historical experiences for democracy and peoples' rights, developed also with the sharing and appreciation of the entire West, as an oppressive organisation if not actually an enemy of freedom,' is Mattarella's reflection on the latest attacks, also coming from the US, on the European Union.