EUROPE AT A CROSSROADS: Ethics and Democracy in a Fragmented World
A SPEECH BY THE GRAND MASTER OF THE LGLS AT THE AACEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN BARCELONA
LGLS
10/13/202610 min read
EUROPE AT A CROSSROADS
Ethics and Democracy in a Fragmented World
Liberty, Reason, Solidarity and the Preservation of Values
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Allow me first to express my gratitude to the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Spain for hosting us, for its hospitality, and for the opportunity to meet once again in a spirit of fraternity, dialogue and cooperation.
The topic of our colloquium, “Europe at a Crossroads: Ethics and Democracy in a Fragmented World,” has not been chosen by chance. It reflects the times in which we live, but also the responsibility that we, as liberal and adogmatic Freemasons, bear towards the societies in which we live and act.
The official subtitle of our colloquium is: “Liberty, reason, solidarity and the preservation of values.” These are also the four pillars upon which we can base our response to the fragmentation of Europe.
Europe truly stands at a crossroads today. Yet this crossroads is not merely political, economic or geopolitical. Above all, it is ethical, moral and civilizational.
We see societies in which elections exist, yet trust in democratic institutions is declining. We see parliaments functioning while public dialogue becomes increasingly harsh. Democratic procedures formally remain in place, while at the same time the independence of institutions, media freedom and effective mechanisms for holding power to account may be weakening. Democracy can remain present in form while gradually losing its spirit.
According to the V-Dem Institute’s 2026 report, democratic backsliding affects seven Member States of the European Union. This is a serious warning that the weakening of democracy is not a problem confined to one region of Europe, but concerns the European space as a whole.
At the same time, European fragmentation is being fueled by nationalism and populism. Complex problems are increasingly reduced to simple slogans, while emotion displaces argument. When politics begins to appeal primarily to fear, dissatisfaction and identity divisions, it is not only political style that changes — democratic culture changes as well.
Democracy is therefore not merely a question of elections. It encompasses the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, media freedom, the protection of minorities and checks on power, but also the capacity to listen to others and to accept that those who think differently are not our enemies.
Contemporary Europe does not lack politicians, but it increasingly lacks statesmen and visionaries. There are many who manage day-to-day politics and think only as far as the next election, while there are fewer and fewer of those who have the courage to think ten or twenty years ahead.
A statesman does not consider only what is popular today, but what is good for society in the long term. A visionary does not merely manage the crisis before him, but seeks to shape the future that is yet to come. Today, we have too much politics focused on the next election, and too little politics focused on the next generation.
When politics loses its vision and is reduced to political maneuvering, democracy may continue to function procedurally, but society begins to lose its direction.
At the same time, when we look at the everyday lives of ordinary people, we often see a very different Europe from the one presented to us in public discourse. People of different nationalities, religions, origins and skin colors work together, live next to one another, educate their children together, cooperate, form friendships and help one another.
Of course, intolerance exists, and it would be wrong to deny it, but in everyday life it still tends to appear largely as isolated incidents. It is nowhere near as widespread or as dominant in direct relations between people as one might conclude from the political, media and digital space.
We must therefore ask an uncomfortable question: If people are able to live together, who then creates divisions — and who benefits from them? Divisions feed on fears, economic insecurity, historical traumas and a sense of injustice, but these fears can be politically amplified and transformed into conflict. When politics is no longer capable of offering a common vision of the future, it very easily begins to offer a common enemy.
The media and digital platforms give this process additional strength. Conflict attracts attention, fear spreads faster than explanation, and extreme positions often become more visible than reasonable ones.
A statesman seeks to unite society around a common future. Political maneuvering finds it much easier to unite supporters around a common enemy.
After the Second World War, Europe attempted to build precisely the opposite kind of order. The European project was not created merely as an economic arrangement. It was also a moral response to war, totalitarianism, persecution and destruction.
That is why ethics must be placed at the center of our reflection.
Ethics gives meaning to institutions, laws and democratic procedures. Without it, institutions may exist but lose credibility; rights may be proclaimed but not genuinely respected.
And so the question before us is not only what kind of Europe we want, but also what kind of person Europe needs. A passive and frightened individual, enclosed within his own group and identity? Or a free, responsible and educated citizen, capable of dialogue and solidarity, and prepared to defend human dignity?
This is precisely where our Masonic responsibility begins. The first pillar of our response is liberty.
For a liberal and adogmatic Freemason, liberty begins with freedom of conscience — the right of every person to believe, not to believe and to express their convictions freely, provided that the equal rights of others are not thereby infringed.
For us, therefore, secularism is far more than the separation of state and religion. It is a guarantee that no religion, dogma or ideology will become a compulsory measure of civic worth.
At the same time, our symbols remind us that liberty is not arbitrariness.
The Compasses teach us to apply a moral measure to our own actions and to recognize the limits of our liberty where the dignity of another person begins. The Square calls upon us to test our decisions against fairness, truth and responsibility.
Liberty without responsibility can become selfishness, while power without limits, even when obtained through elections, can become a threat to liberty itself.
Contemporary liberty also faces new challenges. Digital surveillance, mass data collection and the technological capabilities of states and private companies raise the question of how much security we may seek without losing the right to privacy. A democratic society must protect its citizens, but it must not turn every citizen into an object of permanent surveillance.
The second pillar is reason.
In the Masonic tradition, Light is not a finished truth that someone possesses and imposes upon others. It is a quest — the capacity to doubt, to verify, to learn and to engage in dialogue with another person.
Digital platforms and artificial intelligence have made extraordinarily rapid access to knowledge possible, but they have also accelerated the spread of false and manipulated content. According to the Eurobarometer survey of November 2025, 79 per cent of Europeans are concerned that citizens may make electoral decisions on the basis of disinformation. When people no longer share even basic facts, they no longer merely live with different opinions — they begin to live in different realities. The defense of reason today is therefore also the defense of democracy.
But democracy cannot survive if the citizen is reduced merely to a voter who places a ballot in a box once every few years. It requires an active citizen — a person who asks questions, verifies information, participates and assumes a share of responsibility for the community.
And it is precisely here that the Lodge can offer a modest but meaningful model. In the Lodge, we speak and listen. We elect and vote. We accept a common decision. Offices are elective and limited in duration. We may differ in our views, but because of that we do not break the Chain of Union. We learn to agree to disagree. This is one of the most important democratic lessons: a difference of opinion need not produce hostility.
The third pillar is solidarity.
The Chain of Union is not merely a ritual moment. It is an image of human interdependence. Within it, no one stands alone, yet no one is lost in the crowd. Each person retains their individuality while at the same time accepting a share of responsibility for the whole.
Perhaps this is precisely the image of the Europe we seek: different peoples and states preserving their identities, while knowing that their future depends upon one another. We see this solidarity whenever fires, earthquakes or floods strike one European country and firefighters, rescue teams, doctors and equipment from other states cross borders to provide assistance. At such moments, solidarity ceases to be a slogan.
One human being helps another, one state helps another, and borders lose their significance in the face of human suffering.
In Serbia, we too have tried to transform values into action. During a six-month campaign carried out in several cities, we promoted organ donation, while our Fraternity also participated in donations of medical equipment and assistance to vulnerable families. The purpose was not to show who we are, but to demonstrate what our values mean when they become responsibility towards another human being.
Yet here in Spain, it would be wrong to speak about solidarity without mentioning migration. The recent events in Ceuta showed how quickly a migration crisis can become a humanitarian, security and political crisis, but also how people fleeing war, persecution, poverty or despair can be turned into instruments of political and geopolitical pressure. At that point, we are no longer speaking only about migration, but about the instrumentalization of human beings.
In its response to the events in Ceuta, the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Spain emphasized two obligations that must not be placed in opposition to one another: the protection of human dignity and the right of a democratic state to protect its borders, the security of its citizens and the rule of law.
A democratic state has both the right and the duty to control its borders. Humanity does not mean the absence of borders and rules. But a person standing at that border does not cease to be a human being. The strength of democracy lies precisely in its ability to be both firm and humane — to protect its borders without abandoning its values.
Integration is a two-way process. It is legitimate to expect those who arrive to respect the law, equality, freedom of conscience and the rights of others, while the receiving society must offer them a genuine opportunity to become equal members of that society.
Central and Eastern Europe also knows another side of migration — the departure of its young and educated people. When a society loses doctors, engineers, teachers, researchers and young families, it loses not only population, but also knowledge, creativity and part of its future.
European solidarity must therefore also mean reducing development disparities between regions, because persistent inequalities can deepen social and political divisions.
The fourth pillar is the preservation of values.
Values are not preserved by repeating them at ceremonial gatherings or writing them into declarations. They are preserved only when they are lived, transmitted and applied.
In an Italian Lodge, in an example I described in my book, members learned that a candidate for mayor belonged to a local neo-Nazi movement. They did not belong to the same political party and they did not jointly support his opponent. Nevertheless, they publicly opposed his election because they considered Nazism incompatible with Masonic ethics and human dignity. This illustrates an important distinction.
Liberal and adogmatic Freemasonry should not become a political party, nor should it participate in everyday partisan conflicts. But political neutrality must not mean moral indifference. We do not belong to any political party. But we do belong to values.
We cannot observe one moral code in the Lodge and another in the profane world. If we do not carry what we build in the Temple into our families, professions and societies, our work remains unfinished. The rough ashlar is not merely a symbol of our personal imperfections. It reminds us that the society in which we live is not a finished work either.
This message has particular significance for Central and Eastern Europe. Our region has a particularly strong memory of fascism, Nazism, the Holocaust, wars, communist dictatorships, nationalism and political persecution. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain in 1989 awakened the expectation that democratization would become irreversible. But history did not end in 1989.
It became clear that changing a political system does not automatically create a democratic political culture. Democracy is not created merely by adopting a constitution, holding elections or incorporating European legislation. It requires strong institutions, free media, education, responsible citizens and a culture of dialogue. Precisely because of its historical experience, Central and Eastern Europe has something important to contribute to the future of the continent. Our regional perspective must not be closed. It must contribute to the renewal of Europe as a community of values.
We want a Europe that remains open to all European states that are truly prepared to embrace the rule of law, democratic institutions, media freedom, secularism, the protection of minorities and human dignity.
Future enlargement of the European Union must not be merely a geopolitical decision or an administrative fulfilment of formal criteria. But neither may the European Union lose its credibility towards candidate countries. A genuine and credible European perspective is necessary.
The countries of Central and Eastern Europe should not merely be a space between East and West, but equal participants in shaping the future of Europe. AACEE has an important role in this. Our Association arises from the experience of Central and Eastern Europe, but its message is European in significance.
AACEE must be a space of dialogue, cooperation and mutual support. It should be a space in which liberal and adogmatic Obediences jointly consider the problems facing European societies and develop concrete responses. We should not be afraid of the social and political sphere if we enter it with clarity of values rather than with ambitions of day-to-day politics. We are not a political organization, but the values we stand for are not issues to which liberal and dogmatic Freemasonry can remain indifferent.
AACEE should therefore develop educational programmes, public conferences and projects for young people, and should strengthen democratic culture, media literacy, freedom of conscience, historical memory and intercultural dialogue. We are different in language, history, culture and tradition. But precisely in that diversity lies our strength.
In our Lodges, people of different professions, nationalities, faiths and philosophical views meet. And despite those differences, we recognize one another through shared values. This is perhaps one of the most important messages that Freemasonry can offer society today: diversity need not become division, difference need not become conflict, and disagreement need not produce hostility.
The future of Europe will not depend solely on institutions, treaties, military capabilities or political decisions. It will also depend on our ability to preserve the values that have enabled European society to reach its present level of civilizational development — freedom, human dignity, the rule of law, responsibility, tolerance and solidarity.
These values are not merely a legacy of the past. They represent the moral framework without which sustainable development is impossible. They build trust, enable peace and stability, and create the conditions for economic, social, cultural and human progress. A society that loses its moral compass may continue to function, but it can hardly achieve lasting progress.
That is precisely why liberal and adogmatic Freemasonry bears a particular responsibility: not to impose political solutions, but to remind society of the importance of values that transcend day-to-day politics, to defend them against relativization, and to carry them into society through its own actions.
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