“We live in a world profoundly different from the one in which the United Nations was founded” in 1945, with the purpose of preventing war, said Giorgia Meloni, President of Italy. “The question we must ask ourselves 80 years later is:  ‘Have we succeeded?’ The answer lies in the headlines and is merciless.” In this context, she spotlighted the consequences of the large-scale war of aggression launched in 2022 by the Russian Federation, a Security Council member, which “deliberately trampled” on Article II of the UN Charter to annex territory of another State, and is unwilling to sit at the peace table.  This war, she said, unleashed destabilizing effects beyond its borders, while the UN became more divided.

“It is no coincidence that Hamas took advantage of the weakening of this architecture to launch on 7 October 2023 its attack against Israel,” she said, noting that the “ferocity” of the attack on unarmed civilians prompted Israel to a reaction that was, at first legitimate, but now exceeds the limit of proportionality, with a largescale war disproportionately affecting Palestinian civilians.  Her country will therefore vote in favour of sanctions proposed by the European Commission against Israel.  To end the war, concrete solutions are needed, she said, noting that her country has signed the New York Declaration on the two-State Solution, emphasizing as “indispensable preconditions” the release of all Israeli hostages and Hamas’ renunciation of any role in the government of Palestine.

She went on to call for a “pragmatic, realistic reform” of the United Nations, bringing about transparency of mission and cost, adding:  “What we call the glass palace must be truly a house of glass.”  It is not just institutions that require reform, in a “change of era”, she said, calling for the revision of tools such as international conventions regulating migration and asylum, which were framed before mass irregular immigration or human trafficking existed.  They are no longer current, and when interpreted ideologically by politicized judiciaries, they end up trampling on the law instead of upholding it. “The UN cannot look the other way and protect criminals in the name of civil rights,” she stressed.

After 30 years of “blind-faith globalization”, “things have not gone well, and things could get worse,” she warned, calling for the halting of the unsustainable green plans in Europe and the West, which are leading to deindustrialization far sooner than decarbonization.  She deplored the conversion of production sectors based on theories that ignored the needs and economic capacities of people, causing suffering among vulnerable social classes.  Unsustainable environmentalism has destroyed the automobile sector in Europe, created problems in the United States and job losses, depleted knowledge and has not improved the health of the planet.  To say so is not to deny climate change, she added, but to affirm reason, which means “gradual reform instead of ideological extremism”, and keeping humanity at the centre.