A row ensued Friday after Senate
Speaker Pietro Grasso said Thursday the ruling centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) "no longer exists", in explaining his
recent decision to leave the party.
Senior PD members chided Grasso but leader Matteo Renzi
thanked him.
"I don't know if it was I who left the PD or the PD that no
longer exists," Grasso said.
He said the "real PD" was that of former leader Pier Luigi
Bersani.
Responding Friday, deputy PD head Mauruzio Martina, the
agriculture minister, said "we respect Grasso and we ask for
respect in turn".
He said Grasso should respect the PD, "made up of thousands
of women and men who every day, everywhere do politics with
passion and generosity for the common good".
Another PD bigwig, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, said
Grasso's opinions on the PD "could not be shared".
He said "I esteem and respect him but I'm sorry for what he
said."
Grasso's words, Franceschini stressed, were "absolutely not
to be shared".
PD leader Matteo Renzi said he would like to thank Grasso.
"Let's go forward, I won't start any row and I deal with
concrete things," said the ex-premier.
Renzi said "I reply to a controversy with a thank you without
injecting further elements of tension".
Renzi thanked Grasso for "declaring admissible the amendment
that makes it optional to accompany children to school".
The PD is currently licking its wounds after a poor showing
in Sicilian regional elections Sunday.
Grasso is widely expected to join the Progressive and
Democratic Movement (MDP), a splinter group from the PD that is
led by Bersani and others.
He has been touted to lead a leftwing alliance formed by the
MDP and other small leftist parties into the next general
election.
That election is expected in March or May next year.
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