“The challenges facing humanity put the survival of the planet at risk, starting from the consequences of the climate condition to the wars - which take us back to eras that have no right to be repeated - in which populations become hostages of the aggressive policies of their respective governments,” Mattarella told the 16th Conference of Italian Ambassadors in the World at the foreign ministry in Rome.
“To reduce the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine to a mere regional dimension would be a critical mistake.
“Its destabilising effects are being felt in all corners of the globe and violate the international instruments of cooperation and dialogue,” he continued, adding that the “re-emergence in the third millennium of an ‘imperial’ logic is unacceptable”.
“Nor is it any longer supported by the ideological alibi of confrontation/competition between systems based on opposing life projects.
“Only the logic of arrogance remains,” said Mattarella.
This, continued the president, “is the elementary reason to focus on multilateralism for those countries - such as Italy - that reject imperialist intentions and do not have the ambition to be anyone’s satellite”.
“[Instead, we must] cooperate as equals with all states and peoples of goodwill, also in order to govern globalisation, making it coincide with the scope of freedom and well-being.”
Returning to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mattarella said “for the past 22 months, the Ukrainian people have been standing against this drift and, once again, it is the civilian population that pays the highest price”.
“Here, as in Gaza, it is necessary also in war to tighten the rules of international humanitarian law .
“It is unacceptable that, in armed conflicts of this century, attacks and reprisals are carried out against the defenceless civilian population.
“It is up to the international community to prevent new adventures in this policy of oppression that finds emulators in different situations and on several continents,” he continued.
Mattarella also condemned the re-emergence of anti-Semitism as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.
“Today, as yesterday, it feeds on commonplaces and a distorted view of history, deriving from subcultures that resist time and reason, genuine ‘storehouses of hatred that have never been emptied of their toxic goods’, as Senator Liliana Segre defined them recently,” he said.
“These messages must receive the clearest condemnation, without ambiguity, without interpretations of convenience,” added the president.
On Europe, Mattarella said, “like every human construction, the European Union is not perfect”.
“It is a permanent construction site, to be shored up daily with the work of all, combining together resilience, firm clarity and patience, as is necessary for the conclusion of the ongoing negotiations for the Stability and Growth Pact,” he continued, referring to the discussions underway on Europe’s new fiscal rules.
He also spoke in favour of greater use of the majority vote at European level to ensure that enlargement of the European Union and political and economic integration go hand in hand.
“Enlargement and deepening of economic and political integration mechanisms are two closely related aspects,” said Mattarella.
“In order for the European Union to be able to play a relevant role internally and internationally, they must go hand in hand.
“This is a requirement that should lead us to an increasing use of majority voting,” he said.
AAP
