PD Leader Letta Re-Enters Chamber Of Deputies

Leader of the centre-left Democratic Party Enrico Letta is set to re-enter parliament having been projected the winner in the Siena by-election. Letta, who last sat in parliament in 2015, replaces Pier Carlo Padoan who resigned in 2020 to take up a seat on the Unicredit board.

• Letta, who served as Italian PM from April 2013 to February 2014, became leader of the PD in March 2021.
• Under Letta's leadership the PD has seen something of a revival in its fortunes, with the party and its centre-left allies set to take the mayoralties of Milan and Rome in second round run-offs in mid-October following strong showings in the first round elections on 3-4 October.
• Paola Tamma at Politico tweets on the mayoral contests: "Exit polls analysis: Blow for Meloni & Salvini, who picked weak mayoral candidates in Milan and Rome. The only city where the right has a fighting chance in the runoff is Turin, where the rightwing candidate is Giorgetti's protegé. Collapse of M5S, who lost Rome & Turin. They did ok in Bologna and Naples, where they allied with PD, seen as testbed for national alliance. Can't extrapolate local results to national level, but: the right lost due to infighting (Berlusconi over the weekend rejected both Salvini & Meloni as future PMs) & scandals. The left has won Milan w/out runoff thanks in part to weak adversaries, will probably take Rome for the same reason. Still will bolster PD boss Letta, who also won the Siena seat he was running for in a by-election."