REPEAT: MNI: Italy Centre-Left Torn By Rows, Democrats Weaken

Repeats Story Initially Transmitted at 17:12 GMT Nov 9/12:12 EST Nov 9

--Disputes Hamper Birth of Wider Coalition Ahead of Vote 

--Party Minority Pushes for Alliance with Former Affiliates 

--Former PM Renzi's Chances of Running As PM Candidate Slim

By Silvia Marchetti

     ROME (MNI) - Disputes within Italy's Democrats and the need for them to

open up to former supporters who have abandoned the party are increasing the

pressure on former premier Matteo Renzi to reconsider his tough stances,

lowering the chances of his candidature as premier in next year's elections,

senior party officials have told Market News.

     Several Democrats legislators and party officials told MNI that a party

directorate meeting, scheduled for Monday, would analyse the recent electoral

defeat in Sicily, the last of a series of losses that were undermining the

Democrats' power. They said there would also be discussions over the possibility

of "taking a step back" to rebuild a centre-left coalition with former party

members critical of Renzi's leadership.

     "The trouble is, Renzi is losing men, consensus and popularity by the day

due to his growing conflicts with the internal minority and a large portion of

Italy's public opinion and establishment that no longer support him," said a top

party official.

     "After losing the constitutional reform referendum last year, Renzi's

position and credibility have been weakened and his strong, difficult

personality is not helping him in making allies. Renzi's a great innovator and

innovations are not always welcome in this country," said the deputy.

     Emanuele Fiano, a member of the Democrats directorate, said that a

discussion was underway on whether to create an alliance with a bunch of former

dissidents who in February abandoned the party and created a new group, the

Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP), uniting anti-Renzi top figures.

     Among the MDP ranks -- a total of 43 Lower House deputies and 13 senators

-- are former prime minister Massimo d'Alema and minister Pierluigi Bersani,

part of the old guard swept away by Renzi when he rose to power in 2014 and who

voted against his referendum in December 2016.

     In recent days, also Senate leader Pietro Grasso, a Sicilian, quit the

Democrats following disagreements over the approval of Italy's new voting

system.

     "The defeat in Sicily shows that if we are all united, the centre-left is

able to win, but if we run in contrast to one another, we lose votes. In-house

attacks against Renzi, coming from the left, have not turned out so far to be a

successful strategy. An alliance with the MDP is possible only if us mainstream

Democrats are not forced to relinquish everything we believe in and support,

mainly our leader," said Fiano.

     The Democrats' directorate is made of 130 members, 30 of whom belong to the

minority calling for a wider alliance with Renzi's enemies. "I truly hope that

we all come to agree on the necessity to form a coalition, and to settle our

disputes by valorising what unites rather than divides us. Our divisions are

hurting us, shifting consensus over to the centre-right,, warned Andrea de

Maria, a Democrat deputy from the minority grouping.

     Renzi's party leadership is not being questioned, said Fiano, after he

secured almost 80% of votes at the primaries, but his candidature as premier is

no longer taken for granted, as Renzi himself admitted in a recent online Q&A

with voters.

     "Right now, it's not important to decide who will be the next candidate for

premier, but to analyse where we failed in Sicily, to recover our broken

relationship with citizens, and fight with a concrete electoral platform that

tackles current economic challenges," said Democrat senator Maria Spilabotte.

     "If we don't stop arguing right now inside the centre-left, we'll never get

to focusing our energy on an electoral campaign -- and the next elections are

just a few months away," she warned.

     Spilabotte pointed out that the priority was to make sure the Democrats

remain in power, at the head of the next government, and that whoever becomes

prime minister is a secondary issue at the moment.

     In his recent online conversation with Italians, Renzi said it was not

important to put himself in office, but the Democratic party.

     The reason why Renzi may take a step back in his candidature as premier

lies not only in an attempt to sedate internal contrasts and stretch out the

hand of peace towards the MDP dissidents, but also several recent changes in

Italy's voting system that are pushing him to reconsider his position.

     Giampaolo Galli, a member of the Lower House budget committee, pointed out

that the new electoral law approved by parliament does not envisage the

indication by parties of a candidate for premier. It remains the task for a

post-election parliament and of the head of state to nominate a prime minister.

     "Above all, however, this new law, mainly proportional, favours the

formation of alliances, so all parties that do not ally have a higher chance of

losing," he said, hence the need to open up to the MDP dissidents and other

minor centre-left formations.

     Pressure is therefor set to mount on Renzi to adopt a more "lenient"

approach towards his detractors if he aims to win the next election, including

that of proposing other suitable candidates who could win over centre-left

dissidents.

     The problem is that the MDP's raison d'etre lies in its anti-Renzi stance,

so any hypothetical alliance with the Democrats would entail the ouster of Renzi

as leader of the centre-left and "that is something we just cannot accept nor

come to terms with," said Lia Quartapelle, another member of the Democrat's

directorate and head of the Lower House foreign affairs committee.

     "The MDP was born in opposition to Renzi, with the only goal to destroy

him, how can we accept their conditions just for the sake of an alliance," she

stressed.

     The MDP may have a small membership at the moment, but the undercurrent

"battle" between Renzi and D'Alema, amplified by the media, is damaging the

Democrats.

     In recent days, the names of other possible "acceptable" candidate premiers

have been made, including that of current prime minister Paolo Gentiloni,

supported by Renzi and considered a "dove". But the positon at stake is not a

simple nor comfortable one.

     "Whoever might, and I say might, have to take Renzi's place as candidate,

will he be really willing to deal with such a hot potato at the end of the day,"

said Quartapelle.

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