4.4 mn tuned in to watch Benigni's Europe monologue

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 20 - Nearly 4.4 million Italian viewers, with a peak audience of 28. 1%, tuned in to watch Oscar winning comic, actor and director Roberto Benigni's monologue on Wednesday night dedicated to Europe, broadcast live on Rai1's show Il Sogno (The Dream).
    In the show, Benigni hailed the "European dream" created by the "heroes of Ventotene", referring to Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni who came up with the 1941 Manifesto which was circulated within the Italian Resistance and soon became the programme of the European Federalist Movement.
    "We accomplished quite a few things as Europeans, it's right to remember who we are, we must be proud to be European: Europe is the smallest continent in the world that lit the fuse of all revolutions, it transformed the planet, it forged the greatest thoughts of humanity, inventing logic, reason, doubt" as well as "freedom, democracy, theatre, sport, modern chemistry, social conscience", among others, creating a "common heritage, an immense treasure in all fields", said Benigni.
    "While all around there were ruins, the dead, bodies, in 1941, in the small island of Ventotene, three men, three heroes, Spinelli, Rossi, Colorni" had the idea of "changing everything, turning a page: the idea of European unity", the Life Is Beautiful director said on his show.
    "They are our history's heroes, pioneers".
    On Wednesday, Premier Giorgia Meloni's statement that the Manifesto of Ventotene did not represent the Europe she envisions during a Lower House debate ahead of this week's EU Council sparked a protest by opposition members that led Speaker Lorenzo Fontana to temporarily interrupt the session.
    "I don't know if this is your Europe, but it's certainly not mine", Meloni said of the 1941 manifesto.
    "I am not very clear on your idea of Europe", the premier went on to say, mentioning a pro-EU demonstration held in Rome Saturday at the initiative of journalist Michele Serra, and saying that many participants as well as members of the centre-left opposition in the House had mentioned the Manifesto: "I hope they haven't read it, because the alternative would be scary", she said.
    The small island of Ventotene off the coast of Lazio housed a Fascist prison during World War II, and three of the founding fathers of the European Union were held there by the Mussolini dictatorship.
    This was where Spinelli Rossi and Colorni came up with the Ventotene Manifesto.
    The Manifesto encouraged a federation of European states in a bid to prevent future wars. (ANSA).