Mattarella: 'Let's ask ourselves if we know how to listen to young people adequately'

"The facts that challenge us every day make one question unavoidable: in what world will the new generations exposed to the traumas caused by conflicts live? The dramas, the dramatic experiences lived can only arouse terror, opposition, resentment, which can transform into violence in the future. Yet, in irremediable contradiction with all this, the world achieves admirable achievements in the field of science and technology, with extraordinary opportunities and new responsibilities". This was stated by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in a greeting at the meeting with a delegation from the Nizami Ganjavi Foundation.

"Never before have the experiences of some been lived directly by others. Young people - he continued - are the most obvious example of this. Do we know how to listen to them adequately? The possibility of sharing knowledge and opinions even instantly on a global scale stimulates and urges. These challenges are intertwined and their effects cross borders. Yet, just as the ties that unite our destinies are increasingly evident, as are the serious problems that are entirely common, the trust in the possibility of acting together seems to be weakening. It is this contradiction that we are called to overcome."

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"2027 marks the seventieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which started the path of general integration of the European continent, of which enlargement is part, hopefully as quickly as possible now. It is the opportunity to make an appeal for the 27 countries to continue without delay in making their vocation of peace and growing collaboration available to the international community", continued the head of state.

"The founding fathers of the Union - underlined Mattarella - showed courage and foresight, after the horrors of the Second World War, in archiving the reasons for conflict from a long past of opposition. That choice has allowed entire generations of Europeans of all ages, particularly young people, to meet the peoples of neighboring countries, to study them, to get to know their places, to seize opportunities for work, cooperation, friendship and above all to help prosperity and peace grow".

"Geopolitical and geoeconomic crises today challenge the choices of cohesion and solidarity, cornerstones of the European project, committed to confirming that democracy is stronger than oppression and autocracies. Building peace requires patient work of building trust, combined with the determination to build a fair and sustainable world, with the commitment to alleviate the humanitarian impact on the most vulnerable populations affected by conflicts and global crises, starting from the climate crisis", concluded Mattarella, highlighting that "people of good will need to know how to oppose a world that takes away children's right to life and education through wars, that disfigures the cultural heritage of peoples' identity through destruction".