Italian PM Letta Resigns, Opening Way for Renzi

Local Editor

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta announced his resignation on Thursday after his own party voted for a change of government, with 39-year-old leftist Matteo Renzi now expected to replace him.

Letta said he will submit his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday after less than a year at the head of an uneasy left-right coalition and just as Italy is beginning to emerge from a painful recession.

Members of the center-left Democratic Party's governing directorate voted 136 for and 16 against to a motion requesting a change of government submitted by Renzi in a dramatic climax to a weeks-long feud with Letta.

The party thanked Letta for his "positive work" but called for "a new phase with a new executive".
Ever since being elected to lead the party in December, the ambitious and media-savvy Renzi has accused Letta of dragging his feet on crucial political reforms and failing to do enough to combat rampant unemployment.
Napolitano will now have to formally name a candidate to replace Letta, virtually certain to be Renzi, and a new cabinet could be in place by next week.

The resignation is due to be preceded by Letta's final cabinet meeting.
Renzi said at the beginning of the Democratic Party's meeting that the party and the country were at a "crossroads" and there was a "necessity and urgency" of changing the government but ruled out early elections.

"We have to offer a way out of the marshes with a radical program and profound change," he said, calling for a new government that could govern until the end of the parliament's mandate in 2018.
A poll last month found 54 percent of Italians liked his leadership style, a much higher proportion than the roughly 25 percent who would vote for his party.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team