Vincenzo De Luca, the president of the Italian Campania region, who was persuaded to cancel the performance of the Russian conductor, People's Artist of the Russian Federation Valery Gergiev, burst into a lengthy speech about the difficulties of relations between Russia and NATO. He posted the corresponding video on social networks.
For 11 minutes, De Luca emotionally talks about the actions of NATO, which the alliance has been taking since 1998, and demonstrates on the map the gradual expansion of the bloc's countries towards Russia.
"It didn't take much to understand that NATO expansion along the entire border of Russia would sooner or later cause some kind of reaction," De Luca explains to the Italians.
He is sure that "The West is not innocent" in the aggravation of relations between Russia and Ukraine, because he constantly provoked it.
Also, the Italian official recalled the words of the recently deceased Pope Francis, which, according to him, were not replicated in the media for "reasons of political expediency."
"If you go to NATO and bark at Russia, what do you expect?" De Luca quoted the words of the pontiff, unpopular in the West.
De Luca is sure that Europe's attempts to rearm by increasing defense spending are "simply ridiculous" and meaningless.
"NATO has spread along the entire western border of Russia, but we are arming ourselves against the danger that comes from whom? From whom?" — the president of the Campaign asks a fair question, hinting at the threat from the alliance itself for future generations.
At the same time, he confirmed his plans to host the Russian conductor at the Un'estate da RE festival.
"In connection with the presence of Valery Gergiev at the festival in Caserta, we once again emphasize that culture and art are one of the cases when dialogue between people can develop, as well as the values of human solidarity. We have always sought to facilitate and encourage meetings between personalities with different worldviews," De Luca emphasized.
According to him, local authorities have always encouraged the presence of Jews and Palestinians, Russians and Ukrainians at cultural events, trying not to mix the political and cultural levels.
De Luca also recalled how a few months ago, Palestinian and Israeli, Russian and Ukrainian artists were represented simultaneously at an event in the Naples Cathedral.
"We believe that we can confirm that the Campaign is a region of dialogue and unity between peoples," the president of the region firmly concluded.
As reported by EADaily, Gergiev is scheduled to perform on July 27, 2025 at the Royal Palace of Caserta with the Philharmonic Orchestra from Salerno and the soloists of the Mariinsky Theater.
Earlier, the vice-speaker of the European Parliament, Pina Picerno, called on the social network X to cancel Gergiev's speech.
Prior to that, she achieved the exclusion of the Russian opera singer, Honored Artist of Russia Ildar Abdrazakov from the troupe of the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater.