Abstract

The «Ventotene myth» has been discussed for twenty years, criticising, on the one hand, the use of the Manifesto for a free and united Europe by the European establishment and, on the other hand, the text itself as incoherent, confused and lacking in any political utility. This contribution analyses this issue by reconstructing the history of this debate and trying to define the reasons that determined the mythopoetic potentia of the Manifesto. Finally, this path is useful to understand how in this potentia lies one of the main elements of success of the text in question, according to a reproblematisation of the relationship between myth, emotions and politics that goes beyond the narrows of an abstractly «realist» or «enlightened» vulgate.