Mattarella: defence spending unpopular but never so necessary

'Spending money to equip oneself with effective instruments to ensure collective defence has always been understandably unpopular. Even when, as in this case, the aim is to protect security and peace, within the framework of a policy that respects international law. And yet, as few times as now, it is necessary. Also in order to make our decisive contribution to the realisation of a common European defence, an instrument of deterrence against war and, at the same time, safeguarding the shared area of freedom and well-being. National security and European security are today indivisible, whatever the perspective with which we approach the issue of protecting the freedom and development of our societies'. This was said by the President of the Republic in his speech on the occasion of his greetings to the highest offices of State.

In the face of ongoing conflicts, in Ukraine as in the Middle East, 'we have a duty to cultivate and consolidate every small glimmer. With the aim of building that 'permanent peace', as President Franklin Roosevelt called it when he stated: 'More than an end to war we want an end to the principles of all wars'. Peace, then, as an affirmation of law over force of arms. Peace as a condition for freedom and development,' urged the Head of State

Moreover, "the democratic model today appears to be challenged by states increasingly marked by authoritarian involutions that, against history, propose themselves as alternative models. A challenge for democratic systems today also appears to derive from the attempt to ignore and erase the boundary between freedom and arbitrariness. The claim to remove limits to individual behaviour, combined with the potential offered by technologies, risks overwhelming democratic systems and the rule of law," Mattarella added

"It is legitimate and necessary for each political force to have its own agenda, its own priorities, its own vision of reality and the dynamics that move it. But in addition to confrontation and physiological dialectics, there must also be the sharing of some fundamental objectives on which to work together to ensure the good of Italy," is the appeal made by the President of the Republic, for whom "there are some major issues of national life that go beyond the horizon of legislatures, and cross the possible alternations between governing majorities. Issues that require long-term programmes, huge investments of resources, commitments and sacrifices that will affect generations to come. Strategic issues that define by their content the future of our Republic'