On June 22, 2025, as part of the powerful protests surrounding the NATO summit in The Hague, Lucille Cornelius, spokesperson for DiEM25 Netherlands, delivered a moving and uncompromising speech at the ‘Global Women for Peace – United Against NATO’ gathering.

Held in solidarity with women-led peace movements across the globe, the event brought together voices from all walks of life – activists, artists, mothers, workers, migrants – united in one message: No to war. Yes to justice. Yes to peace.

Lucille’s speech made a huge impact as she spoke plainly and boldly, cutting through the noise with a fierce urgency. She condemned the violence of empire, NATO’s complicity, and the utter moral collapse behind global militarism. From a revolutionary feminist standpoint, she made it clear that peace isn’t a demonstration of weakness, and love isn’t naïve and that they are in fact weapons in the fight against oppression.

Lucille Cornelius’ speech in full:

Good afternoon,

I am Lucille Cornelius, spokesperson for DiEM25 Netherlands. Revolutionary greetings, comrades in the room and around the world.

War is a crime, and peace is not radical – but radical peace is the answer! DiEM25 believes in non-alignment, in anti-war, and in a strategy for warlessness.

Today, we woke up in a far different reality than we did yesterday. Today we see the fulfilment of the wet dream of violent men with diabolical ideas about OUR planet and OUR people. NATO has been priming us through their narratives and violent plans. Empires have been stoking fires that won’t be easily put out. It is clear: war is the dumbest answer to any of our questions.

Violent men have been raping the planet – our first mother – and continue to do so with impunity. No wonder women are being murdered and raped across continents, rampantly and without much change in decades.

We stand here today as women because we know: violence will never solve the problems of this world.

Perhaps it is us – the women, always pushed into back rooms, sidelines, and fringe spaces – who will teach the world that it takes empathy, kindness, and community to raise the bar for humanity. That love is the foundation of all that truly matters on Earth.

But we do not speak of a weak love. We speak of a powerful, revolutionary love – one that shouts from every platform, every space, at every opportunity with a booming, resounding global sound.

It is love that makes the world go round.

Perhaps it is us – the women, the majority – who will finally teach the world that LOVE is what makes this planet turn.

And to NATO we say:

We know what you did last summit!

Get off our lands and stay out of our nation’s coffers!

One day, all the money in the world will mean nothing – when the planet is destroyed, and the people who inhabit it are erased.

I thank you.

Carpe DiEM.

Lucille’s words were met with enthusiasm and huge applause. Her speech reminded us that the fight for peace is inseparable from the fight for gender justice, ecological healing, and the dismantling of imperialist structures.

DiEM25 stands in full solidarity with women and allies across the world who resist war, colonialism, and destruction – and who are courageously building a future rooted in peace, dignity, and collective liberation.

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