Natalonga for Europe 2022 swim marathon to take place in Lerici
New Europeans International is supporting the swim marathon for Europe organised by our partner organisation Europa Now (Opens in a new window), which this year takes place in the Golfo dei Poeti, Lerici (near La Spezia) during the 200th anniversary year of the death of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Speaking prior to the event, Eric Joszef, New Europeans International member and founder of Europa Now, said:
"The idea of the Natalonga is to promote the idea of the long journey to Europe which we must follow because in the end we will reach a place where our values are safeguarded and our future secure."
In previous years, the Natalonga was always held in Ventotene, the island in the Tyrennian sea where the European radical thinkers Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni, were interned by Mussolini. With the help of Ursula Hirschmann and others, they published the Ventotene Manifesto for a Free and United Europe (Opens in a new window) during World War II, one of the foundational documents of today's European Union.
Roger Casale, founder of New Europeans, will be a guest speaker at the event to talk about the importance of Shelley's work and that of the Romantic poets to radical movements for the renewal of European democracy today:
"Shelley would have been a proud and passionate European were he alive today and there is much that we as committed Europeans can draw from his work and from his legacy. His life was tragically cut short when his ship was lost off the coast of Lerici in July 1820 but his words live on and inspire us anew today."
The event will be dedicated to the memory of the Italian journalist, outstanding European and former President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli (Opens in a new window), former President of the European Parliament, who died earlier this year.
RAI News coverage of Natalonga 2021 | Watch here (Opens in a new window)
For further information, please contact | roger.casale@neweuropeans.net
