Democratic Party (PD) former
House whip Roberto Speranza and other members of a leftwing PD
minority led by former leader Pier Luigi Bersani will not attend
a directorate meeting of the split-threatened centre-left party
Tuesday, they said Monday, because they do not intend to be part
of a committee to be elected there to take the PD to a congress.
The ruling PD continued to teeter on the brink of a major
split that could have repercussions for the future of Premier
Paolo Gentiloni's government.
On Sunday ex-premier Matteo Renzi quit as head of the PD at a
party assembly in order to trigger the process for a new
congress, via which he is expected to seek a fresh mandate.
Renzi said that he would not let the threat of a split from
members of a significant left-wing minority within the group ro
"blackmail" him into backing down and not standing for the
leadership again.
Tuscan Governor Enrico Rossi said Monday that he was
considering terminating his membership of the PD.
"I was just thinking of sending back my membership card to my
section, with a letter," Rossi told Rainews 24.
Rossi, Puglia Governor Michele Emiliano and former PD House
whip Roberto Speranza accused Renzi of creating the split by not
taking account of the minority's demands.
On Sunday Emiliano spoke at a PD assembly and suggested there
was still a possibility that the split could be averted.
Renzi resigned as premier in December after almost three
years in office following the rejection of his flagship
Constitutional reform in a referendum.
Several prominent members of the minority campaigned for a No
vote in the referendum.
Renzi's place was taken by former foreign minister Gentiloni,
also a PD member.
Rossi said Monday that an eventual splinter should continue
support Gentiloni's government.
"This question should be put to those who sit in parliament,
but I think it is normal that it (a new group) would support the
government," he told Rainews24.
Former premier Enrico Letta made an appeal on Monday for PD
members to avert a split.
"I look at the break-up of the PD with astonishment," Letta,
who was ousted as premier by Renzi in 2014, wrote on his
Facebook page.
"I say to myself that it cannot finish like this. It must not
finish like this.
"Today I don't have anything but my voice and I cannot do
anything but use it to call for generosity and reasonableness".
Justice Minister Andrea Orlando and two other senior PD
members, Gianni Cuperlo and Cesare Damiano, decided at a meeting
late on Sunday to set up a new 'area' within the party.
The three, who called for unity as a party assembly on
Sunday, agreed on the need for a new area to propose new
policies to revamp the PD, sources said.
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