80 sena mit-tmiem tat-Tieni Gwerra Dinjija fl-Ewropa, il-Parlament Ewropew onora l-kuraġġ u s-sagrifiċċju ta' dawk li taw ħajjithom. Il-President Metsola laqgħet tliet irġiel straordinarji li għexu l-gwerra u li għadhom iġorru l-memorja tagħha.
Dear President Costa, dear António, Dear Members, Distinguished guests, Dear veterans, Dear friends,
We gather today, in this House of European democracy, to mark a solemn and significant anniversary: eighty years since the end of the Second World War in Europe - the largest and deadliest conflict in human history - and the very reason our Union was born.
We come together to remember those who fought, and those who fell. We honour their courage, their sacrifice, and their defiance in the face of tyranny. We remember, so that the horrors of Europe’s darkest chapter are never repeated.
They fought so we could live in peace. They sacrificed their lives so we could live in freedom. They risked everything so our children could grow up safe. We will always remember them.
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Eighty years ago today, in a red-brick schoolhouse in Reims - just a few hours west of where we are now - Nazi Germany signed its unconditional surrender, bringing the war in Europe to an end.
By the next morning, the guns had fallen silent. In London, Paris, and Prague, people poured into the streets. They embraced. They sang. They wept - with joy, with relief, but also with grief.
It was a day many feared they would never live to see. After nearly six long years, the war in Europe was finally over.
But for millions, peace came too late. Tens of millions of lives had been lost. Among them, six million Jews. Entire communities were erased. Entire generations wiped out. Entire cities reduced to ash. Many who survived faced famine, displacement, and disease.
For a generation, trauma left its mark in silence. Millions of children across Europe would grow without a father. Their mothers without a husband. The war was over - but the wounds were deep.
And for millions across Europe, 1945 brought not liberation, but a new kind of oppression. As Stalin’s grip tightened, an Iron Curtain descended upon Europe, dividing countries, families, and lives. For the people of Warsaw and Riga, Bratislava and East Berlin, the end of one struggle marked the beginning of another. And it would take decades before they could truly be free.
In the aftermath of the war, Europe lay in ruins. But its spirit was unbroken. And across the continent, people began the quiet, dignified work of rebuilding. Not only with bricks - but with hope.
The names that line the corridors of our Parliament - Schuman and Adenaeur, Spaak and De Gasperi, Churchill and Monnet - these were men who had lived through the war. Who had buried brothers, lost friends, and seen cities burn. And yet, they chose reconciliation over revenge. They chose to believe that former enemies could become partners. That cooperation was not a weakness - but a necessity.
From their courage, a new Europe was born. A Europe that rejected the poison of the past, and dared to build peace. And it is because of them that we stand here today - in a Parliament of nations, of former foes turned friends, united by a shared promise: never again.
Forty years ago, President Ronald Reagan stood before this very Parliament and spoke with profound admiration of what had been achieved. These were his words:
“Europe, beloved Europe, you are greater than you know. You are the treasury of centuries of Western thought and Western culture; you are the father of Western ideals and the mother of Western faith.
Europe, you have been the power and the glory of the West, and you are a moral success. In the horrors after World War II, you rejected totalitarianism; you rejected the lure of the new superman and a new Communist man; you proved that you were and are a moral triumph.
You in the West are a Europe without illusions, a Europe firmly grounded in the ideals and traditions that made her greatness, a Europe unbound and unfettered by a bankrupt ideology. You are today a new Europe on the brink of a new century, a democratic community with much to be proud of.”
President Reagan’s words were not only a recognition of how far Europe had come, but a call to protect what had been built.
We owe a profound debt to the men and women who made that peace possible. And some of them are with us here today.
It is my deepest honour to welcome three extraordinary men who lived through that war, and who carry its memory still: Mr Robert Chot Mr Janusz Komorowski Mr Janusz Maksymowicz
To you - and to all those who are not with us today - we say simply: thank you.
Your courage lit Europe’s darkest hour. You risked your lives so that we could live ours. You chose to resist. You chose to hope. And we will never forget.
Eighty years have passed. But the story is not over. Once again, war has returned to our continent. Once again, cities are being bombed. Civilians attacked. Families torn apart.
The people of Ukraine are fighting not only for their land - but for freedom, for sovereignty, for democracy. Just as our parents and our grandparents once did.
This Parliament will always stand with those who seek peace, against those who shatter it. For liberty, and against tyranny. The task before us today is the same as it was then:
To honour memory. To protect democracy. To preserve peace. A peace that is just, real, and lasting.
Thank you.