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Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi criticised his European Union counterparts after the EU summit in Bratislava on September 16. He said he was dissatisfied, describing the meeting as nothing more than “a nice cruise on the Danube”.

As reported by the Reuters news agency, Renzi criticised the lack of commitments on the economy and immigration in the summit’s conclusions, which he himself signed.

Following a joint news conference by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, the Italian PM gave a fiery interview with the daily Corriere della Sera. He said: “If we want to pass the afternoon writing documents without any soul or any horizon they can do it on their own,” Renzi said of his fellow leaders. “I don’t know what Merkel is referring to when she talks about the ‘spirit of Bratislava’. If things go on like this, instead of the spirit of Bratislava we’ll be talking about the ghost of Europe.”

“I’m not going to stay silent for the sake of a quiet life… if someone wants to keep Italy quiet they have picked the wrong place, the wrong method and the wrong subject,” he added.

In a separate report, Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, noted that Renzi said he did not join Merkel and Hollande in the closing press conference because he was unhappy with the decisions reached.

Meanwhile, Renzi is facing increasing pressure domestically ahead of the upcoming referendum on constitutional reforms expected to be held in November or December. The Italian press speculated that Renzi’s outburst was designed to win over voters aggrieved with Brussels. The country has reportedly become markedly more eurosceptic in the recent years.