"Are you organizing any kind of protest against NATO nuclear exercise?"

"I'm preparing a flyer, we'll distribute it on Friday," wrote Sandra from Florence.

And this is just the latest message we are receiving.

Browsing the web you come across positions taken at international, national, regional and local levels.

The NATO nuclear exercise "Steadfast Noon" 2026, hosted by Italy from October 13 to 23, is drawing widespread criticism.

Against the simulation of a "nuclear strike"

The protests involve civic committees, peace movements, and political figures. They focus on issues of democratic transparency, the militarization of the territory, and above all, the almost unmentionable specter: the terrible risk of nuclear conflict. This scenario is downplayed by the Italian government, calling Steadfast Noon a "routine" exercise, almost a formality. In fact, it is an exercise that is 99% accurate to a true "nuclear strike": only the final atomic explosion is missing. But everything else is in place: the pilots must adhere to tight deadlines, takeoff with the mock B61 atomic bombs taken from underground bunkers must occur within ten minutes, and the time to reach the target must be no more than one, or two, minute. Everything is planned and executed with extreme speed, to avoid any mistakes. Yet it was precisely this error that secretly dominated the Cold War scene, fortunately encountering heroic people who had healthy doubts and disobeyed the order to press the nuclear button, driven by a twinge of conscience .

ICAN's condemnation

A strong condemnation of the nuclear exercise has come from the Geneva office of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) , the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner. In an official statement, ICAN unequivocally condemned the Steadfast Noon exercise.

The ICAN website states : "This year's exercise is hosted by Italy – one of the NATO countries that hosts US nuclear weapons – and involves 17 countries, including Finland and Sweden, which only joined the alliance in 2023 and 2024, respectively."

In fact, NATO member countries that do not own nuclear weapons also participate in Steadfast Noon, and they do so through the SNOWCAT ( Support of Nuclear Operations with Conventional Air Tactics ) program, providing tactical support with escort fighters, reconnaissance aircraft, electronic warfare, and air-to-air refueling. Finland and Sweden are also participating in the nuclear holocaust simulation.

Melissa Parke , ICAN's executive director, said: " Exercising the use of nuclear weapons is reckless and irresponsible under the best of circumstances, but doing so while a full-scale war that has already raised nuclear tensions to a level not seen since the Cold War is being fought nearby is pure folly . "

ICAN's position was further strengthened by Parke's own words regarding the overall escalation of nuclear exercises: "Nuclear exercises and missile tests are nothing but dress rehearsals for mass slaughter. The nuclear-armed countries all claim to be responsible, but they are the exact opposite. They are playing roulette with our lives. The majority of countries see things for what they are and have rejected nuclear weapons by joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is time for the rest of the world to follow their example . "

ICAN also underlined a key legal point: all nuclear exercises are prohibited by the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons ( TPNW ) , which came into force in 2021.

In Büchel in front of the nuclear base

In Germany, the peace movement organized two protests to coincide with Steadfast Noon. On October 10, about fifty activists gathered in front of Büchel Air Base, the site of US nuclear weapons, in a vigil organized by "atomwaffenfrei.jetzt" and supported by ICAN Deutschland and other organizations .

A demonstration is planned for October 17 in Nörvenich, organized by Ohne Rüstung Leben together with Friedensgruppe Düren, DFG-VK, and Netzwerk Friedenskooperative. The protesters are demanding the cancellation of Germany's participation in the exercise, the withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from Germany, an end to "nuclear sharing," and accession to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

A message from London

"Are you organizing any kind of protest against the exercises? If so, we'd be happy to promote it."
The message comes from a prestigious British peace campaign: CND.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is a British movement fighting for the elimination of nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom and globally. Its long history of fighting nuclear weapons culminated in the campaign that led to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the United Nations, which entered into force in January 2021.

The MIR in the square in Ivrea

The Movement also denounces the risk of normalizing catastrophic war scenarios and the lack of transparency in emergency plans. MIR Italy expresses its support for the "Stop Steadfast Noon" campaign promoted by PeaceLink and encourages civil society to "promptly demonstrate their rejection of this escalation of war, questioning prefects about the effective preparation of adequate security and civil protection plans."

The MIR promoted an initiative in the square in Ivrea in which Pierangelo Monti took the microphone to call for attention to the NATO nuclear exercise, while underlining the importance of the TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons).

The press release from Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo

The issue of the PPNW Treaty banning nuclear weapons was also raised by Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo, which intervened on October 13 with a statement titled "From Moscow's threats to NATO's Steadfast Noon: nuclear deterrence produces insecurity, the total elimination of nuclear weapons is needed." The Italian Peace and Disarmament Network also condemned "Russia's latest threat" to deploy its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, if NATO countries attempted to isolate the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The issue became a hot topic following a military exercise in August that alarmed Moscow because it was an electronic warfare operation launched virtually without warning near Kaliningrad, aimed at testing the ability to disrupt enemy communications and "blind" Russian radar and air defense systems present in the Russian exclave.

Angelo Bonelli's parliamentary question

Angelo Bonelli, MP for the Green and Left Alliance, has submitted a question to Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, questioning Parliament for the failure to inform it of such a large-scale exercise. Bonelli reconstructed the details of the operation from an ENAV technical document intended for pilots, published on August 20, which highlights the involvement of Sardinia (Salto di Quirra range), Lombardy (Ghedi base), Friuli Venezia Giulia (Aviano US base), Puglia (Amendola and Gioia del Colle bases), and Sicily (Trapani base) . He calls for a halt to the nuclear exercise and for the public sharing of the emergency health plans prepared in the event of a nuclear war.

"Friuli Venezia Giulia should not be an outpost of nuclear deterrence."

MP Marco Grimaldi (Greens and Left Alliance) and regional secretary Sebastiano Badin (Italian Left FVG) have filed a complaint against the NATO nuclear exercise Steadfast Noon, which involves the Aviano nuclear base in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Simulations of the B61-12 atomic bombs stored at the Aviano base will be used. The two politicians explain the reasoning behind their initiative: "In 1989, Germany withdrew from a NATO nuclear exercise due to the unacceptable number of civilian casualties it suspected. The Italian government should follow that example and suspend participation in Steadfast Noon. We have always been committed to nuclear disarmament: Italy should join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and rid its soil of these devices. Friuli Venezia Giulia cannot be an outpost of nuclear deterrence: we want a land of peace."

In Trieste, the Prefect meets with you to discuss emergency plans.

The national initiative to protest the NATO nuclear exercise Steadfast Noon is also taking shape in Trieste—home to a military nuclear transit port—and a press conference has been announced for Friday, October 16th on PeaceLink's online calendar . The goal is to request the Prefect's contingency plans in the event of a nuclear war. A letter regarding the nuclear exercise will be presented, delivered that morning to the Prefect of Trieste, along with a request for an urgent meeting.

A poem from Turin

Enrico Peyretti, a nonviolence scholar and peace historian from Turin, signed the appeal against the exercise and sent this poem.

I curse him

When a warplane passes by
I curse him.
Not the pilot, who does the job
most unhappy in the world
worse than tax collectors and prostitutes.
I wish he would grow two wings
angel or seagull
and came down smiling
in the garden of his house
or in the schoolyard
to make children laugh.
But the plane
skeleton of antediluvian monster
that it crashes soon
on the most barren rocks in the world
without even killing
a lizard.

And the engineer who thought of it
he starts making coffee pots
sewing machines, carpenter's tools
or, if you prefer, rides and roller coasters.

Luca Sassetti (February 2006)

"Alieni a ratione"

Monsignor Giovanni Ricchiuti, president of Pax Christi, together with missionary Alex Zanotelli, confidently signs the appeal against the nuclear exercise and adds a comment on the politicians who support it: "Alieni a ratione". A Latin expression meaning "aliens to reason," or even "devoid of reason." An expression used by Pope Giovanni XXIII in his encyclical Pacem in Terris, he wrote: "It is almost impossible to think that in the atomic age war can be used as an instrument of justice."