Opinions

Open letter to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella

Following President Mattarella's speech for the exchange of greetings with institutional representatives

by Mario Capanna

27 December 2025

Aggiungi Il Sole 24 Ore
ai preferiti su Google

CERIMONIA PER LO SCAMBIO DEGLI AUGURI DI FINE ANNO CON I RAPPRESENTANTI DELLE ISTITUZIONI, DELLE FORZE POLITICHE E DELLA SOCIETÀ CIVILE

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Mr President,

i address you in an open form because the topic you have recently raised is of public interest.

In his speech for the exchange of greetings with the representatives of the institutions, he said: 'The expense of equipping ourselves with effective instruments to ensure collective security has always been understandably unpopular (...) and yet, as rarely as now, it is necessary'.

I respectfully disagree. Your bellicose position conflicts with the sentiments of the vast majority of the Italian people, who are decidedly against rearmament. You are undoubtedly familiar with the Censis survey, according to which, if Italy were involved in a war, only 16% of citizens would take up arms: all the others, with different reasons, would refuse.

According to you, the 'necessity' for rearmament stems from the fact that 'we are forced to defend ourselves against new risks which, without unfounded alarmism, are concrete and current'. What are the 'new, concrete and current risks'? On this focal point he cannot be reticent, he has a duty to point them out.

Could someone attack us? Who? Since neither the Republic of San Marino, nor the Vatican State, nor a European country, nor the USA, nor China, which has an interest in trading quietly, can invade us, all that remains is Russia, which you have repeatedly indicated on other occasions as the 'enemy'.

While Putin is repeating in no uncertain terms that he does not want to bring war to Europe, but that he is ready to defend his country if it and NATO attack him - which was considered a 'threat' (!?) by Brussels. To rearm ourselves, let us turn reality upside down.

At the same time that you were delivering your speech, Pope Leo XIV, in his message for the World Day of Peace, stated: "It is scandalous that war should be waged to achieve peace (...) with communication campaigns and educational programmes that convey a merely armed notion of defence and security, (...) with forms of blasphemy to drag the words of faith into political combat".

He then lashed out against 'the oppositional logic that goes far beyond the principle of legitimate defence, which is more topical in a planetary destabilisation that is becoming more dramatic and unpredictable every day'. All this, the Pontiff emphasised, translates into "repeated calls to increase military spending and the resulting choices are presented by many rulers with the justification of the danger of others" (de te fabula narratur?..). The alternative indicated is the search for peace, through the 'disarming path of diplomacy, mediation, international law'.

Do you not also find it worrying that the major Italian media have not reported on Leo XIV's message? We have come to the point that the 'free' press censors even the Pope, because it reasons contrary to the single thought.

The Pontiff's words match those of Albert Einstein: 'Without disarmament there can be no stable peace. The arms race will inevitably lead to new catastrophes'.

Mr President, rearmament generates a double tragedy: it subtracts mountains of resources for the most important social needs, and it is never unequivocal, in the sense that if one gets more weapons so does the other. This is how Europe, the US, Russia, China are being rearmed: a annihilating spiral that absolutely must be stopped, before the word gets around to nuclear weapons.

So allow me to harbour the hope that you will avoid the compulsion to repeat in your next end-of-year message.

With cordiality

Mario Capanna