Letta vows to create 'new party' after being elected PD head

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 15 - Ex-premier Enrico Letta has vowed to revamp the Democratic Party (PD) after the assembly of the centre-left group elected him its new leader on Sunday.
    "You don' need a new leader, you need a new party," Letta said after being elected with 860 votes in favour, two against and four abstentions.
    He said his priorities would be jobs and the plight of women and young people.
    He talked about lowering the voting age to 16 and giving Italian citizenship automatically to the children of migrants born in Italy.
    He said he would try to "build a new centre left based on the initiative and leadership of the PD.
    "I'll talk to all those interested in dialogue," he said.
    Letta had stepped back from frontline politics after then-PD-leader Matteo Renzi brought down his broad coalition government in 2014 in order to take over the helm of government himself.
    Renzi has since split from the PD to form his own centrist party, Italia Viva (IV). (ANSA).