ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “Democracy is stronger than its enemies. It is above all where it was built with sacrifice. Where it is rooted in the consent of communities, in the convictions of people, in the full affirmation of the rights and duties of citizenship.” Thus the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the ceremony for the exchange of wishes of the end of the year with the representatives of the institutions, political forces and civil society. “Partecipation seems to be a word that was once characterised by increasing electoral abstention. In the last regional elections it voted less than 45 percent of the rightholders. In the previous rounds the percentage was already downhill and we must unfortunately note that this trend continues. You cannot tire of repeating it: a democracy of abstained, absent, resigned is a more fragile democracy and to suffer damage are the citizens”.
“It is valuable to everyone’s contribution to the community of which it belongs – Mattarella points out. Participation is also made of questions, answers, comparisons, trust in the institutions. To those who are called to represent the institutions, to give them a face and a voice, to those who have the honour to serve them is asked to correspond to these expectations and to this trust. The confidence of citizens is the most valuable resource for the state. The constitutional pact of our coexistence is based on it.”.
The democratic model “is today challenged by states increasingly marked by authoritarian invocations that, against history, are proposed as alternative models. A challenge for democratic systems appears today also from the attempt to ignore and cancel the border between freedom and arbitrator. The claim to remove the limits to individual behaviour, combined with the potential offered by technologies, is likely to overwhelm democratic orders and rule of law,” he adds.
“This traditional appointment at the end of the year, with those who play important roles in institutions and with those who take responsibility in the different sectors of social life, invites us to look towards the future, looking for the reasons on which to found a hope that is not a mere ritual expression. Our common hope today has the name of peace.” It is necessary a “real and just peace wherever it puts an end to the uncertainty and disorientation induced by the international. We have the duty to cultivate and consolidate every small spire that opens up compared to current conflicts, in Ukraine as in the Middle East. With the aim of building that ‘permanent peace’, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: ‘More than an end of the war we want an end to the principles of all wars’. Peace, therefore, as a statement of the right to the force of arms. Peace as a condition of freedom and development,” he adds.
“The theme of international politics, alliances, the choice of Europe as a way to go without rethinking. This is not only because of the commitments we have made with the accession of the Treaties. We know that the Union has some problems and many opponents. Only Europe can preserve, and give a future, to those achievements that States have guaranteed for decades with their ordinances,” he concludes.
– Photo of repertoire IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
