Angela Merkel has been lying to the public about European unity, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said.
In a brutal attack on his fellow European Union (EU) members, he said the first EU summit without the UK amounted to no more than "a nice cruise on the Danube".
Having been excluded from a joint news conference by the German Chancellor, Mrs Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, he said he was dissatisfied with the Bratislava summit's closing statement.
The outspoken Italian premier hit out at the lack of commitments on the economy and immigration in the summit's conclusions, despite signing it himself.
In a fiery interview in Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Mr Renzi intensified his criticisms, although he remained vague on what commitments he would have liked the summit to produce.
The Prime Minister has staked his career on a referendum this autumn over plans for constitutional reform, promising to resign if he loses.
Talking about his fellow leaders, he said: "If we want to pass the afternoon writing documents without any soul or any horizon they can do it on their own.
"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."
Talking about his fellow leaders, he said: "If we want to pass the afternoon writing documents without any soul or any horizon they can do it on their own.
"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."
Mr Renzi said he is preparing a 2017 budget which he claims will cut taxes despite a slowing economy and record high public debt.
He added: "At Bratislava we had a nice cruise on the Danube, but I hoped for answers to the crisis caused by Brexit, not just to go on a boat trip."
He said: "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."
With polls showing the referendum too close to call, Renzi insisted he had "never been so optimistic" about its outcome.
The ballot is expected to be held in late November or early December. The other EU leader to most vocally criticise the results of the Bratislava summit was Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who faces his own domestic referendum next month, on the EU's plan to relocate refugees throughout the continent.
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