Holy Father,
President De Palo, all authorities present here today, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.
Thank you for this invitation, thank you for this wonderful, engaging initiative that is now becoming a tradition. My thanks go beyond the customary words that are said on these occasions. 
We are living at a time when it has become increasingly difficult to talk about natality, maternity and the family. It sometimes even seems revolutionary to do so. We had been warned about this. We had been warned about the fact that a time would come when we would have to fight to show that “leaves are green in summer” or that “two plus two is four”. Today, courage is needed to claim and support things that are crucial for the growth of our society. Courage, however, is not something that is lacking in this room. Courageous ideas must then of course be matched with courageous actions. 
Today, we find ourselves governing the nation at this complex time and what we said before coming to power is also what we are trying to achieve because, in the end, this is what democracy is essentially about: the link between the commitments you make and the actions you carry out. Since our very first day in office, the Government has put children, parents, mothers and fathers at the top of its political agenda. We have made the birth rate and the family a top priority, and we have done so for the simple reason that we want Italy to have a future again, to go back to hoping and believing in a future that is better than this uncertain present. 
We have dedicated the name of a Ministry to the birth rate (Minister Roccella, whom I thank, is here with us today), linking the issue of natality with that of the family and equal opportunities. This choice was not about a name: it was a choice about substance, not form. It sums up a government programme that wants to tackle, with determination, the major crises being faced by Italy, and in truth not just by Italy. The demographic crisis is undeniably one of them, for the simple reason that children are the first building block for any kind of future. The work required for this objective involves very many areas indeed. 
If women cannot fulfil their desire for motherhood without having to give up on professional fulfilment, it is not so much equal opportunities they will be lacking but equal freedom; if young people don’t have the possibility to buy a home in which they can aspire to raise their children; if wages are so low as to dampen the urge to start a family for fear of not being in a position to maintain it properly; if all these things and more are not addressed with dedication then it will be impossible to achieve the goal that all of us here are aiming for.
This priority therefore cuts across all Government policies. The choice to have a ministry dedicated to this topic is not a choice about sector-specific policies; it is a choice to comprehensively include the point of view of families in all the policies the Government pursues. This means not only passing specific measures, but also taking into consideration, in all areas, the added value that those who bring children into the world, who start a family, create for the whole of society.
During this two-day conference, others before me have spoken about concrete initiatives the Government has already introduced in this direction, starting with those included in our budget law, which was written in just ten days and yet is able to provide an indication of the course we intend to follow: increasing the ‘assegno unico’ [‘single allowance’]; strengthening parental leave; renewing measures to help young couples buy their main home; and, the right, for example, for anyone with a variable rate mortgage to switch to a fixed rate mortgage. Then the recent labour regulations approved on 1 May: the ‘inclusion allowance’ for low-to-medium income families with dependent children or elderly or disabled members; the provision to make tax-free bonus payments by employers (the so-called ‘fringe benefit’ measure) structural in nature, which we want to keep at EUR 3 thousand, prioritising, however, workers with dependent children. As Gigi De Palo said, and I share this objective, there is then the inclusion of the composition of households and the costs incurred to raise children in the principles of the enabling law on taxation, through to the review of the incentive system for companies, and many other measures. I don’t want to bore you with this, and nor shall I repeat the statistics that were, as always, so masterfully cited by Professor Blangiardo yesterday.
I would like to take this opportunity, being also in the most precious presence of the Holy Father, to explain the reason why a little better, i.e., the underlying vision that drives our action. Our action is based on a fundamental point: the declining birth rate is not only caused by material issues, although these of course inevitably also exist (wage levels, services, nursery schools, healthcare, the possibility especially for women to strike a work-life balance); the birth rate also, and very much, depends on society’s ability to perceive itself as being vital, to imagine its future, to picture itself in the decades to come and to look beyond the here and now. 
This is something we have lacked, and this is our first and biggest challenge. We want to pursue this challenge, but not with the controlling, and failed, approach of those who told us in the past that, for example, jobs and wealth could be created from nothing by means of a decree. No, we want to take up this challenge with a different approach: the ‘subsidiary approach’. This is the approach of those who believe that it is central government’s job to create favourable conditions, in terms of the regulatory environment and above all in terms of culture, for families, initiative, employment and development. An environment that prefers assistance, understood as caring for the most vulnerable, to an over-reliance on welfare benefits; an environment geared towards improving conditions for the worse-off and not worsening conditions for those already in such a position; an environment that considers parenthood an added value for everyone and an investment for the future, and not some sort of whim or privilege. 
We want to foster a new vitality for our society. We want to do so with regulatory instruments, supporting best practices, and we want to do so at a cultural level. In this regard, it will be said: “So, you want an ‘ethical State’!”. No, we do not want an ‘ethical State’. On the contrary, we want a State that supports, not manages, people; we want to believe in people, we want to bet on Italians, we want to bet on young people (there are many here today), on their hunger for the future and on their ability to understand that their fate, and what they will have in their lives, largely depends on them and on their will. We must certainly build the preconditions required for everyone to have the best, but what that ‘best’ is also depends on people’s own willpower. We believe that optimism, enthusiasm and positivity are the most powerful fuel you can put into the engine of any society, and unleashing the energy people have to offer is key to overcoming the crises of our times.
I was really struck by His Holiness’s take on the concept of “crisis”. The Holy Father says that the word crisis does not have a negative connotation per se. After all, the word ‘crisis’ comes from the Greek ‘krisis’, choice, or ‘krino’, to distinguish. Crises therefore require that typical sifting work that cleans the grains of wheat after the harvest, that allows you to choose, separating the wheat from the chaff; this then allows the grain to be ground down and turned into flour and bread. I find this to be a very powerful metaphor, Your Holiness. It tells us that, without crisis, there is no life, there is no rebirth, if I have interpreted it correctly, because crises are the driving force for action, the driving force for choices and, in some ways, the driving force for responsibility. Crises are therefore also a great opportunity, and if this is the case for each of us then it is all the more true for populations as a whole, and all the more true for those whose daily work is to make choices, such as those who are called upon to govern a nation or a population. We are choosing to unleash the best energies the people and national community have to offer in order to make Italy stronger. Families of course play a crucial role in this plan because there is no energy more authentic than the energy families unleash. We want to give Italians back the certainty and pride of living in a nation that is capable of solidarity and is able to look to the future. A nation in which people are eager to do things, to put their talents to good use, to fulfil themselves and to help those who are really in difficulty. A nation that puts aside that fear and that feeling of melancholy that was also described in a recent report by Censis.
The history of the Italian people is not one of melancholy. The history of the Italian people is one of great feats, creativity and achievements that have impressed the world, and that is the Italy we want to encourage. That is the Italy we want to see and experience again, where we want to once again play a leading role.
We want to give Italians back a nation in which being a father is not out of fashion and being a mother is not a private choice, but a socially recognised value. A nation in which everyone, men and women, can rediscover the beauty of becoming parents, of welcoming, looking after and nurturing a child. A nation in which having children is a wonderful thing that doesn’t take anything away from you, that doesn’t prevent you from doing anything, and that gives you so much.
For decades, and I shall come to a close, the dominant culture has told us the opposite and I think the time has come to reverse the trend. We want a nation in which, whatever each person’s legitimate choices and free inclinations may be, it is no longer a scandal to say that we are all born from a man and a woman. A nation in which it is not a taboo to say that maternity is not for sale, that wombs cannot be rented out, that children are not over-the-counter products that you can pick off a shelf as if you were at the supermarket, perhaps taking them back if they don’t match your expectations.
We want to start again with respect for the dignity, uniqueness and sacredness of every single human being, because each of us has a unique and unrepeatable genetic code and this, like it or not, has something sacred about it. We want to face this challenge through realistic eyes and with the driving force of vision; we do not want to put on the straitjacket of ideology.
Among the many beautiful words he has given us, Pope Francis told us that “the family is the story from which we originate”, a story “woven with bonds” which have shaped the people we are today much more than material goods. If we all come from a bond, even if sometimes imperfect, even if sometimes severed or bruised by life’s vicissitudes, it is important that that bond is in turn passed on, that the flow of generations does not stop, that our communities are able to have solidarity and vitality.
Overcoming the demographic winter, as Pope Francis has told us, means fighting something that goes against our families, against our homeland, and also against our future. Your Holiness, we love our families, we love our homeland, we believe in our future, and we will play our part to the full. 

Thank you.

[Courtesy translation]
 

Good afternoon everyone.

This was a long and fruitful discussion with President Zelensky, whom I wish to thank for his very important visit. I am really glad he is here, I am happy that, less than three months after my visit to Kyiv, he has been welcomed to Rome today with such affection and esteem, starting with President of the Republic Mattarella during their meeting this morning. 

Right from the very start of the Russian invasion, the President of the Republic has represented Italy’s very clear position in every institutional forum possible: shoulder to shoulder with our allies, supporting the Ukrainian people.

The pace we have set in relations between Italy and Ukraine testifies to our commitment and to the value we attach to this relationship that is important for our nations, but also for the international community as a whole, for the European story, and for all peoples who love freedom. 

I was in Kyiv at the end of February where, among other things, I undertook to host a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction. We held that big conference on 26 April and it was attended by more than 600 of Italy’s best companies, to show that our nation intends to play a leading role in the efforts to rebuild Ukraine’s economy, but even more so to show that we are betting on Ukraine’s victory.  

Today, my friend Volodymyr Zelensky is here and this in turn is a sign that Ukraine is betting on a future in which Italy plays a leading role, on a common future of prosperity, as shown by the fact that Rome is the first leg of President Zelensky’s European trip. We thank him for this. Italy has demonstrated its full support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity with facts; we cannot stress enough that Ukraine is the victim of a brutal and unjust aggression by the Russian Federation. This is how Italy intends to continue. 

We reiterated to President Zelensky that we will continue to provide comprehensive support to Ukraine for as long as necessary and beyond. Our nation will continue to provide assistance at both bilateral and multilateral level; we will continue to ensure our strong support for the strict application of sanctions, just as we pledge our support for peace, as long as it is a just peace.

We are not so hypocritical as to call anything that may resemble an invasion ‘peace’. No unjust peace can ever be imposed upon Ukraine, and any peace agreement will have to have the consensus of the Ukrainian people. Italy will continue to contribute to all efforts that can lead in this direction. In agreement with our main allies, we will continue to provide the necessary support, including military support, so that Ukraine can, we hope as soon as possible, arrive at the negotiating table in a solid position. 
This is important, because peace cannot be reached with any option that involves Ukraine surrendering; that would be terribly unjust, but it would also be very dangerous for peace in Europe and a very grave precedent for all the world’s nations. Peace will only be reached if and when Russia ceases hostilities and the attacks against civilian targets.

We want to take this opportunity to renew our call for Moscow to immediately stop the aggression, and to immediately withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory. We are in favour of a diplomatic solution to the conflict and we are ready to provide Kyiv with all possible assistance, when Kyiv deems the conditions are in place to start any kind of negotiation dialogue. 

We support the ten-point peace plan proposed by President Zelensky a few months ago. We recognise Ukraine’s legitimate European aspirations and we support them. Ukraine is fighting a hard battle to defend the European values of freedom and democracy. It is an outpost of security for the entire European continent and, therefore, for each of our citizens. 

This is why we chose to play a decisive role in supporting Ukraine being granted candidate status for European Union membership. We will continue to ensure our full and total support to facilitate Kyiv’s gradual integration into the European Union, including any assistance that may be required regarding the reforms necessary for this process.

We are ready to support further intensification of Ukraine’s partnership with NATO. We will talk about this at the Vilnius summit in July; it will probably be the main topic. Italy fully supports implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the agreement for the export of Ukrainian grain; this is fundamental to protect global food security. 

We are continuing to implement actions in the humanitarian sector and support programmes to restore critical infrastructure. Cooperation projects have also been launched in the healthcare sector and with regard to the protection of cultural heritage. We are working in all areas. We will continue to do so and our relationship, our friendship, which is now also personal, testifies to this and is a guarantee of it. 

The message we want to reiterate once again today is clear and simple: Ukraine’s future is a future of peace and freedom and a European future. It is a future of peace and freedom; there are no other possible solutions to this matter. I am convinced that Ukraine will win and will be reborn stronger, prouder and more prosperous than before.

Our nation came out of war many years ago. After that war, it managed to create what was called a “miracle”. I believe that, today, Ukraine can aspire to do the same thing, and we will do all we can to make it succeed.

The Ukrainian people chose to fight and they are fighting, because they believe in their future, because they want to look to that future. Together with them, we are looking beyond this conflict, beyond the enemy, beyond the invasion, beyond the injustice. The best way to look beyond is to think already now of a free and rebuilt Ukraine, because every school, every hospital, every bell tower that we rebuild together in Ukraine will form part of the foundations for the whole of Europe. 

Today, Italy is confirming that it is a solid and reliable ally, a credible nation; Rome is confirming that it is a capital of peace. We are working for peace, we are looking at President Zelensky’s commitment with hope. 

Lastly, I wish to also express the Italian Government’s support and appreciation for the commitment by Pope Francis and the Holy See. After this meeting, President Zelensky will be going to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis. We are very pleased about this initiative; we are aware of and appreciate the Holy Father’s sympathy, solidarity and strong feeling of affection for Ukraine. 

This is an important day, for this delegation and for President Zelensky, but also for us. We are therefore here to reiterate Italy’s support and to say once again: long live Ukraine, long live Italy.

[Courtesy translation]