Premier Matteo Renzi told
lawmakers for his Democratic Party (PD) that this week's vote
for a new president was a chance for the centre-left group to
bury the "fiasco" of the 2013 head of State elections.
"The 2013 fiasco is on everyone's CV," Renzi said.
"Today we have the opportunity to make up for it".
In 2013 two presidential candidates proposed by former PD
leader Pier Luigi Bersani were sunk by internal rebellions
within the party.
In the case of the second candidate, two-time premier
Romano Prodi, an estimated 101 PD members voted against, forcing
Bersani and the leaders of other parties to beg Giorgio
Napolitano to embark on a second term as president.
Napolitano reluctantly did so to avoid a crisis, becoming
the first Italian president to be re-elected, but the
89-year-old stressed this was a temporary situation and he
resigned earlier this month.
"The election of the new president is a fundamental step
for the credibility of the PD and of this political class,"
Renzi said, according to sources.
"I'm confident there'll be no repetition of 2013".
While calling for unity, however, Renzi also said he
defended "the right to dissent".
He stressed that past presidents such as Carlo Azeglio
Ciampi and Francesco Cossiga were elected despite "snipers",
numbering 180 and 170 respectively, who used the secret vote to
buck the party line.
The premier also said that it was an "anomaly" that Italy
has never had a woman president.
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