'Destroying Western civilisation…': Italian PM Meloni delivers implicit rebuke to Left in US speech

[Music] my deepest gratitude goes to Chairman John Dres president Frederick Camp the entire Atlantic Council for this distinguished recognition I am very proud of and I think a elen for the beautiful words that he had for me and for his precious genius for the era in which we live um I have put a lot of thought into how to present tonight's speech I uh initially I thought of empath emphasizing The Pride I still feel as the first woman to serve as prime minister in a nation as extraordinary as Italy or about the effort the Italian

government is doing to reform its country to make it once again a protagonist of the geopolitical chess board I could have talked about inable bone that unites Italy and the United States regardless of the political beliefs of the respected governments AB Bond witnessed here by the many friends of Italian origin representatives of a community that for Generation has contributed to making America stronger or I could have talked about foreign policy in a Time dominated by caos in which Italy stands firmly alongside those who defend their freedom and sovereignty not only not only for it is

right to do so but also because in this it is in the interest of Italy and the West to prevent a future in which the law of the strongest prevails as politicians as a politician you basically have two options being a leader or a follower to point a curse of or not to act for the good of your people or to act only driven by polls well my ambition is to lead and not to follow yeah tonight in any case I want to offer offer you a different perspective let me start by mentioning an OP

ad recently published in the European edition of Politico this analysis was focused on Melone Western nationalism the author which is called Dr constantini argues that my political belief is in white we with what might be called Western nationalism I thought we at its heart embodies the survival and Renaissance of Western Civilization which according to constantini is new to the European scene I don't know if nationalism is the correct word because it often recalls doctrines of aggression or authoritarianism however I know that we should not be ashamed to use and defend words and Concepts like nation

and patriotism because they mean more than a physical place the mean a state of mind to which one belongs in Sharing culture Traditions values when we see our flag if we feel proud it means that we feel the pride to be part of a community and that we are ready to do our part to make its fate better well for me the West is more than a physical place by the world West we do not simply Define countries by specific geographical location but as a civilization built over the centuries with the genius and sacrifices of

many the West is a system of values in which the person is Central men and women are we are equal and free and therefore the systems are democratic life is sacred the state is secular and based on the rule of law I ask and wonder to myself and to you are these values of which we should be ashamed AED off and are these values and do these values drive us away from the others or they bring us closer to the others as West I think we have to risks to cter the first is what one

of the greatest contemporary European philosopher Roger scrutin called iophobia from the Greek words o which means home and phobia which means fear kakos this is my personal tribute to do to your award tonight [Applause] okay sorry for being so serious but I want to share you with you this uh thought I had iophobia is the verion to one's home a mountain contempt which leads us to want to violently erase the symbols of our civilizations in the US as in Europe the second risk is the Paradox that while on the one hand the West looks down

on itself on the other hand often claims to be superior to the others the results the result is that the West is in danger of becoming a less credible interlocutor the so-called Global South is demanding more influence developing nation that are by now large largely established there are autonom autonomously collaborating among themselves autocracies are gaining ground on democracies and we risk looking more and more like a closed and self-referential Fortress in Italy to reverse this curse we decided to launch for example the M plan for Africa a model of cooperation based on equal footing to

build to build a new long-term partnership with African countries for yes crisis are multiplying in the world but every crisis hides also an opportunity for it requires to question oneself and to act above all we need to recover awareness of who we are as Western peoples we have a duty to keep this promise and seek the answer to the problems of the future by having faith in our values a synthesis born out of the meeting of Greek philosophy rakos Roman law Christian humanism in short as my English Professor Michael Jackson used to say I'm starting

with the men in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways and no message could have been and we know it we know the song [Applause] guys we have to start with ourselves to know who we really are and to respect that so that we can understand and respect others as well there is a narrative that authoritarian regimes care so much much it is about the idea of the inevitable deing of the decline of the West the idea that democracies are failing to deliver an army of foreign and Ming trolls and B is engaged

in manipulating reality and exploiting our contradictions but to the authoritarian funds let me say very clearly that we will stand for our values we will do [Applause] that President dragan once said above all we must realize that no Arsenal or no weapon in the Arsenal of the world is so formidable as the will and the moral courage of free men and women it is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have I couldn't agree more our freedom and our values and the pride we feel for them are the weapons our adversaries fear the

most so we can't give up the strength of our own identity for that would be the best GI gift we can make for authoritarian regimes so at the end of at the end of the day patriotism is the best response to deism defending our deep rotes is the precondition for reaping ripe fruit learning from our past mistakes is the precondition for being better in the future I will I will also use the words of JP Pini perhaps the greatest conservative intellectual in the 20th century in Italy he who knows how to conserve is not afraid

of the future because he has learned the lessons of the past we know how to face the impossible challenges that this Ira confronts us only when we learn from the lessons of the past we defend Ukraine for we have known the ca of a world in which the law of the strongest prevails we fight human traffickers because we remember that centuries ago we fought to abolish slavery we defend nature and humankind because we know that without the responsible work of of humans it is not possible to build a more sustainable future as we de develop

artificial intelligence Elon we attempt to govern its risk because we fought to be free and we do not intend to trade our freedom in exchange for greater Comfort we know how to read this phenomena because our civilization has given us the tools the time we live in requires us to choose what we want to be and what path we want to take we can continue to fool the ideas the idea of the decline of the West we can surrender to the idea that our civilization has nothing more to say or no no more roots to

chart or we can remember who we are learn also from our mistakes add our own piece of the story in this extraordinary walk and govern what happens surrounds us to leave our children a better world which is exactly my choice and I like to think that the reason why you have chosen me for this precious award is that you share this Choice thank you [Applause] [Music]