Renzi: Our job is “leading Europe”

Rome – Italy is committed to its duties, and can now get back to its job – that is, “leading Europe.” The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi reiterated one of his favourite ideas in the e-news he sent today, in which he also lamented that Europe “lacks the power of dreams.” 

“For years, Italy had owed a lot to European institutions – and especially to its citizens, a moral debt due to the reforms which used to be discussed but not implemented. Today – said Renzi – things have changed. Reforms are now law and, after a 3-year recession, crucial economic fundamentals are now positive in Italy.” According to the Prime Minister, “we can get back to our job then. And our job is leading Europe, not going into some Brussels palace and being ordered to do something.”

Renzi reminded that “Europe is the child of an ideal and idealistic dream. A dream of those – trapped in an island, in exile – who were still strong enough to dream of the United States of Europe. I’m talking about the Ventotene Manifesto of course, created by Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi and other prisoners.” The Italian Prime Minister reiterated that “the meeting with Angela Merkel was useful: together, we restated that the worst dangers for the Union are populism and demagogy and, for my part, I keep on thinking that populism and demagogy grow stronger where unemployment, lack of growth and blind austerity annihilate future developments.”

Still, according to Renzi, now “the Union falls short of its ideal dimension, of the power of dreaming, of the ability to say no to those planning walls and borders.”