The sovereignty of a people cannot translate into war against its neighbor, and the success of a nation cannot justify injustice. This was stated by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella speaking to the Bundestag in Berlin, on the occasion of the Day of Mourning, which since 1919 has commemorated all the victims of war in Germany.
“Too many Doctor Strangeloves who love the Bomb”
“It must be resolutely reiterated: aggressive war is a crime”, said Mattarella, adding that “those who attack civilians cannot go unpunished. The face of war is that of children, from the South to Kiev to Gaza”. The president underlined the risks of a world in which “new ‘Doctor Strangeloves’ appear on the horizon, with the claim that we must ‘love the bomb.'” He recalled the failure to ratify the Treaty banning nuclear tests by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran, Egypt and the United States, while Russia withdrew its membership in 2023. “It only leads to suffering and divisions to scrap the treaties and institutions created to prevent violence that in our societies we consider crimes and severely censor”, he warned, raising the alarm on the global growth of the atomic arsenal, which “can erase the innocence of the world”.
“If you want peace, you must build and preserve it”
The speech, dramatic and full of exhortations, underlined how the future depends on the exercise of democracy: “Sovereignty belongs to the citizens and not to an impersonal Moloch who claims to determine their destinies. Democracy is what supports authority and legitimizes it”. And then the invitation to build peace, which must not be “the fruit of resignation in the face of great tragedies. But of courageous initiatives, of courageous people. In recent decades, many actors in the international community – and among them the European Union – have obstinately and not without difficulty, pursued peace, which is nourished by respect for fundamental human rights. Because, if you want peace, you have to build and preserve it”, stated the head of state.
The ceremony at the Bundestag was solemn: the packed Parliament, the female choir of the Bremen Cathedral sang the German anthem, and pieces by Bach, Vivaldi and “Experience” by Ludovico Einaudi accompanied the speech. Mattarella concluded with a warning that recalls the Holocaust: “‘Nie wieder’, never again. Yet we are witnessing war, racism and aggression again.”
Berlin, Mattarella: We are in this solemn Chamber to remember the fallen, the victims of war and violence.
Fallen into the abyss of history, into the traps set by other men.
The life of people, of peoples, of nations, is full of stumbles and tragedies pic.twitter.com/4PWi7IuZZV— Quirinale (@Quirinale) November 16, 2025
