Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced that he will leave the Democratic Party (PD) and will create his own party, but said that his group will continue to support the new government of Giuseppe Conte .
Renzi’s departure from the party was confirmed on Tuesday in an interview in the newspaper La Repubblica in which he said that the move will be “good for all”.
“I decided to leave the PD and build with others a new ‘home’ to do politics differently,” wrote Senator Matteo Renzi on Monday, in a message on his Facebook account. “After seven years of friendly fire I think we should take note that our values, our ideas and our dreams can not be the subject of daily internal quarrels. “
The leader of the Italian left explained that the new group “will broaden the basis of parliamentary consensus” for Conte’s government.
Renzi said that “the PD is a set of currents, with no vision of the future” and that he wants to spend the next few months “fighting (Matteo) Salvini, not defending against friendly fire.”
“(Nicola) Zingaretti (general secretary of the PD) will no longer have the excuse of saying that he does not control the PD groups because they will now be free of Renzi,” the former mayor of Florence continued.
The secretary general of the PD, Nicola Zingaretti, described Renzi’s move as a “serious mistake dividing the party at a time when its strength is indispensable for the quality of democracy,” but, he concluded, “now let’s think about the future of the Italians.”
The former Prime Minister did not want to give the name of his new party and explained that its logo and ideas will be presented at a political congress to be held soon. Italian newspapers believe that Renzi could bring 31 deputies and senators with him to the new party.
Renzi, who resigned as prime minister in December 2016 after losing a referendum on the reform of the parliamentary system, insisted that his departure has nothing to do with being left out in the new Government formed by the PD and the Five Stars Movement, which he helped to bring about.
Renzi’s move could wreak havoc on the Italian political scene less than a week after the new government coalition took office.
