This article begins from the hypothesis that the state of emergency should be able to be established only for reasons of national security. The main argument is that a state of emergency should be established for causes of an exceptional nature and other than those for which the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms is currently restricted. The content of this article demonstrates that the state of emergency is a defensive- offensive act through which the state temporarily suspends some legal institutions, replacing them with others, to protect the existence of the state itself (seen as population, territory, sovereignty), this being the supreme value. protected by such measures