ROME — Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has invited his German and French counterparts to pay their respects at the tomb of one of the founding fathers of European unity in a symbolic bid to relaunch the European project after Britain’s clamorous decision to leave the European Union.
The location for Monday’s summit carries particular resonance as Europe confronts Islamic extremist violence, slow economic growth, and continued anxiety over the implications of the vote by Great Britain. Italy has a lot to gain from a reinvigorated European Union as it copes with flat GDP, the migrant crisis, and political uncertainties over a constitutional referendum this fall.
The island of Ventotene off Naples was where detained anti-fascist Altiero Spinelli in 1941 began co-writing the ‘‘Ventotene Manifesto,’’ which called for a federation of European states to counter the nationalism that had led Europe to war. The document is considered the inspiration of European federalism.
In an interview this weekend with La Repubblica, Renata Colorni, whose father helped spread the ‘‘Ventotene Manifesto’’ through Italy’s resistance movement and whose mother married Spinelli, said she had little hope that today’s Europe could ever meet the Ventotene founders’ original ideals.
‘‘Honestly, today I don’t see first-rate politicians, I only see statesmen who move through the European scene worried about losing the next national elections,’’ she was quoted as saying. ‘‘What’s missing is the will to risk it all for an ideal.’’