Left Ecology Freedom (SEL)
party leader Nichi Vendola on Thursday called for a new leftwing
alliance to challenge center-left Premier Matteo Renzi.
"We propose...creating a leftwing federation to beat Renzi
and his drift to the right," Vendola, who is also the governor
of the southern Puglia region, said while presenting a SEL
convention called Human Factor to be held in Milan January
23-25.
Vendola hopes to attract leftist dissenters from within the
PD who have staged opposition to the premier's Jobs Act labour
reform bill. Forty PD MPs walked out of the Lower House rather
than vote the measure, which opponents say scales back workers'
rights rather than creating jobs.
The Lower House approved the bill on Tuesday in what was a
hard-won victory for the Italian premier over external but also
internal opposition..
Another disenchanted potential ally for Vendola's new
political entity is Italy's biggest and most leftwing union
federation, the CGIL, which has traditional ties with the PD but
which has all but broken off with Renzi, calling a general
strike December 12 along with UIL and UGL federations.
A potential figure on the Vendola bandwagon is Maurizio
Landini, the staunch and vocal leader of FIOM metalworkers
union, a CGIL affiliate.
"Landini is an asset, not only for the Italian left but
also for democracy," Vendola said.
"SEL talks to him, to the CGIL, to the left wing of the PD,
and to students," the openly gay governor and LGBT activist
said.
"We call on young people to come to us in order to find a
way of doing politics that is untainted by cynicism".
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