Allow me to thank the Orchestra Conductor Speranza Scappucci and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra for the concert they will shortly offer us.
It is a splendid art event that we will also share with those who follow us through television and the other media: I extend to all of you a most cordial greeting.
Together with the representatives of the institutions of the Republic present here, I would like to welcome the Ambassadors accredited to the Quirinale.
Your presence represents a further testimony of the sound ties of friendship that unite our Countries.
The 2nd of June is the National Day of the Italians, the celebratory moment of the birth of the Republic, whose principles are enshrined in the Constitutional Charter whose anniversary we are celebrating this year, the 75th since it came into force.
During the last few days, I received numerous expressions of sympathy for the tragic floodings that struck the region of Emilia Romagna and the bordering areas.
I was deeply touched.
Numerous Countries have concretely showed their solidarity and I wish to thank them on behalf of our community.
It is not by chance that I used the word ‘solidarity’: it is a value that is also written in the first articles of our Constitution that, in acknowledging and assuring inviolable individual rights, recalls the duty of political, economic, and social solidarity.
It is a value that is universal in nature, addressed to the whole human community, and that our founding Charter embraced.
The Republican Constitution, born of the redemption from the tragic experiences of World War II, indicates the rejection of war as the instrument to settle controversies.
It is a principle that is very topical and deeply felt, of which the Russian Federation’s inacceptable aggression against Ukraine represents the most brutal and evident negation.
For more than fifteen months, this conflict has been producing death and devastation in the heart of Europe and also provoking extremely serious consequences at global level by increasing food insecurity and poverty in the many Countries that are also a casualty of the consequences of this senseless war whose effects are rippling across the international order that has been patiently built since 1945.
Today we are witnessing with interest and attention the attempts made to find ways of dialogue to achieve peace.
The principles of solidarity and justice that must unite peoples oblige us to pursue a just peace and not a peace reached at the expense of the Country under aggression.
It is with this spirit that Italy, unwaveringly belonging to the European Union and to the Atlantic Alliance, will continue to assure its support to the Ukrainian people and their right to independence.
The pursuit of peace and wellbeing among nations requires the commitment and willingness to find common solutions together.
This is the foundation of our stand in favour of multilateralism.
Only an authentic cooperation between peoples can enable us to successfully tackle the global problems that day after day grow more compelling: from climate change to the protection of health, from managing migration flows to the protection of human rights.
Confirmation of this comes from experiences such as the European integration process, which for almost seventy years now, has been guaranteeing the liberty and growth opportunities of the member States.
The conflict in Ukraine and the growing tension that we are recently witnessing in the Balkans, impose courageous decisions, capable of consolidating and assuring the extension of the European Community project, to enable it to tackle our present-day challenges.
Italy will continue to work to increasingly turn the European Union into a key player capable of projecting peace, stability, and development at global level.
It is with these intentions in mind that I wish you all a Happy National Day.
