Europe will be saved by the
spirit of its founding fathers at Ventotene and not by
economists nitpicking over deficits, Premier Matteo Renzi wrote
on his website Monday. "Professionals of the decimal point won't
save Europe," he wrote. "We will save Europe with the
consciousness of a new generation of European citizens - only
the spirit of Ventotene can save Europe from those who would
raise walls and shut down Schengen". The small island of
Ventotene off the coast of Lazio housed a Fascist prison during
World War II, where two of the founding fathers of the European
Union, Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, were held by the
Mussolini dictatorship. The so-called Ventotene Manifesto of
1941 eventually laid the basis for the Union.
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