MNI INTERVIEW: Italy Renzi Pledges To Create 1 Mln Jobs in '18

--Euro Exit Calls "Folly"; It is "Irreversible"

--Elections Frontrunner "Trusts" Italian Voters' Choice

--Downplays Post-Vote Governability Risks, Says No Chaos

--EU Integration Project To Continue But Europe Must Change

     ROME (MNI) - One million new jobs will be created across Italy in 2018 and

the European integration programme will be pursued if the Democrats win next

year's election, Matteo Renzi told Market News in an exclusive interview.

     Renzi, Democrat Party leader, former premier and a frontrunner for next

year's general election, said employment is a main challenge for the country and

the Democrats are the only party able to deliver the concrete results to support

the ongoing recovery. 

     Renzi, who became prime minister in February 2014, noted 22 million were

employed then, rising to 23 million today, but there was no room for

complacency. "But next next year we want to raise this figure to 24 million,"

Renzi said. 

     He also said he plans to increase the number of fixed-term work contracts

from current levels, to give families a brighter future and therefore help boost

consumption rates. 

     --EURO EXIT "FOLLY"

     He was also undeterred in his support for the single currency, dismissing

all suggestions of referendums or dual-currencies. 

     The euro remains untouchable and irreversible, he said, with all calls to

exit the single currency coming from Lega party populists and the

anti-establishment 5 Star Movement mere "folly".

     For Renzi the European unification process must move on, "against all

isolationist and crazy tendencies like that of proposing a referendum on the

euro exit or the introduction of a double currency". 

     According to the 42-year-old, who ruled Italy until resigning in Dec 2016

when voters rejected his constitutional reform plans, the difference between the

Democratic Party and the centre-right coalition led by former premier Silvio

Berlusconi "lies in all the things we have done and which they have only

promised".  

     The current 5-year legislature, set to end in the next few weeks to allow

for elections as early as March, "has strengthened civil rights and brought

forth a crucial reform path with regard to the labour market and the state's

structure," Renzi said.

     In Renzi's view, the recent Democrat agenda -- from the Jobs Act to

equalities legislation -- has unblocked the decades-long stalemate Italy was

stuck in.

     "Before, everything was frozen, paralysed, bogged down," stressed Renzi.

"The fact that today we can name laws and reforms we have done with proper,

specific names, is great and gives an added value to our work." 

     "We care about Italians, our main concern is how they are faring" Renzi

said, as the country is finally back on the path to growth after a triple-dip

recession, the worst in its post-war history. 

     --ELECTION MANIFESTO

     The Democrats' election manifesto is still a work in progress, he said,

which will be put together at party level after having listened to grass-root

requests and concerns coming from the electorate. 

     During his journey around Italy, "listening to voters" rather than just

campaigning, Renzi said he "encountered a country full of life, resources and

opportunities" that only needed to be channelled into concrete actions to

further improve the outlook. 

     "After this wonderful journey, we now have clearer ideas on how to build

our project for Italy's future," he said. 

     Renzi brushed away concerns over governability risks if the upcoming

elections fail to deliver a stable, ruling majority able to pursue reforms and

thus reassure an "over-watching" Europe on Italy's credibility in meeting its

commitments. Italians would make the right choice at the ballot boxes, he

argued. 

     "I trust Italians, actually I must admit that I have more trust in the

stability of Italians than in the stability of Europe," he said, adding that the

Democratic Party had clear views on how to reform and boost the European Union's

governance model.

     "We are convinced Europeans, but we want a different Europe from the

technocrat one we have often seen. We've always said: 'Yes to Europe, just not

this one', meaning more growth and less austerity, more democracy and less

bureaucracy, more social services and culture, not just finance and budgets,"

Renzi said. 

     --DOWNPLAYS NEW LEFT FEARS

     The Democrat leader also downplayed possible threats to his position coming

from the new left movement, Free and Equal, that is uniting the anti-Renzi left.

     Renzi said his party was far from being alone and was focusing on creating

an alliance with other left-wing forces ahead of the March vote -- alliance

based on concrete commitments to better the country, rather on than empty words.

     "We're building a wide centre-left coalition. When it comes down to

'leftist' things, the Democrat party enacts, does not proclaim them. For us,

allying means having common targets," he said.

     "This is what the left really is," Renzi said. "The Democrat Party doors

are and will always remain open to those who share our project, focused on a

common country view". 

     The former premier warned however, that the lost unity of Italy's left,

torn apart by divisions, risked favouring its enemies. 

     "We must all feel the same responsibility: that of avoiding to hand our

country over to right-wing parties that over years, to put it mildly, have shown

governing incapacity," he said. 

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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