Italy’s Renzi REFUSES to quit despite party only winning 12 PER CENT of regional vote
FORMER Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has refused to quit as leader of his party despite a resounding defeat in regional elections.
Silvio Berlusconi receives rapturous welcome at campaign in Sicily
Sicily’s regional election returned a victory for Silvo Berlusconi’s candidate, Nello Musumeci, after confidence in Mr Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) plummeted to 12 per cent.
And in the Roman suburb of Ostia, victory for the anti-Europe Five-Star Movement (M5S) appeared most likely.
Sicily’s vote was seen as a bell weather for next year’s national election.
But despite the defeats, Mr Renzi, who quit as prime minister last year after losing a referendum on constitutional reform, insists he is here to stay.
He said: “They have been trying to put me on the sidelines for months, but they will not succeed this time either.”
He referred to “false evidence” in a corruption probe targeting his father and claimed it was a tactic to remove him.
Writing in an email newsletter to PD supporters, he said: “They are using every means to get rid of a difficult opponent. That is the aim of those who are against us.”
Mr Renzi claimed all was not lost and the PD had a realistic prospect of winning more than 40 percent of the vote in the 2018 general election - provided party infighting stops.
He pointed out the party was already “in a coalition”, referring to the PD’s support for prime minister Paolo Gentiloni’s government.
He said: “If the PD does what the PD can do and stops fighting inside itself, together with our travel companions, we can reach the percentage of 40 per cent that we got twice in election campaigns I led - the European elections in 2014 and the 2016 Constitutional referendum.”
He added the party was willing to bring in more coalition partners from the left and the centre.
It comes after Mr Renzi warned Italy was on the brink of becoming “ungovernable” due to the rise of Eurosceptic parties.
The Democratic Party secretary slammed the growth of right-wing populism in Italy, branding it ‘“very dangerous”.
Mr Renzi admitted: “Ungovernability in Italy is a great risk.
“That is why I am so disgusted to have lost the referendum. We would have ended this situation.”
He also attacked Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi, Lega Nord chief Matteo Salvini and the Five-Star Movement (M5S)'s Beppe Grillo.
Mr Renzi told El Pais: “It is true that there are populist forces in Italy that are very dangerous in the eyes of the European observer.
“The M5S is, in the European group, more anti-European. Salvini, who has made the agreement with Berlusconi, is a populist.
“And with them, of course, it is impossible to reach agreements.”