(ANSA) - Rome, January 28 - Ex-premier and centre-right Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday met centre-left Democratic Party leader and Premier Matteo Renzi to discuss candidates to replace Giorgio Napolitano as Italian president. The meeting took place in the premier's office in Palazzo Chigi.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Wednesday presented 10 presidential candidates it will submit to a grassroots vote on leader Beppe Grillo's blog. They are Pierluigi Bersani, Raffaele Cantone, Lorenza Carlassare, Nino Di Matteo, Ferdinando Imposimato, Elio Lannutti, Paolo Maddalena, Romano Prodi, Salvatore Settis and Gustavo Zagrebelsky.
Premier Matteo Renzi told a meeting of PD Senators earlier on Wednesday that Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) is against the idea of a PD candidate becoming Italy's next president, ANSA sources said.
But the premier added that he would not accept "vetoes" from the opposition centre-right group. "We had a civil meeting," Renzi said, referring to an encounter with FI representatives on Tuesday as part of talks with other parties on the upcoming presidential election at which Berlusconi did not take part. "They don't want anyone with a past as an activist in our party. We cannot accept vetoes". Renzi said that the so-called Nazareno Pact he struck with Berlusconi last year for a new election law and an overhaul of Italy's slow, costly political machinery does not mean the PD will accept the three-time premier and centre-right leader's candidate for next Italian president. FI last week mooted forward former defence minister and ex-foreign minister Antonio Martino as its first candidate, but is believed to be considering other names. Renzi told the meeting that a decision had not yet been made on who the centre-left group's presidential candidate will be. He added that the final decision on whether the PD should cast blank ballots in the first three rounds of voting, as he has indicated the party will instruct its lawmakers to do, will be made on Thursday. "Even if the newspapers say that a different person is certain to be the candidate every day, the truth is that there is no name yet, as we have decided to find it together," Renzi told the PD Senators, according to the sources. "Tomorrow we'll have to decide whether to go with the proposal of blank papers (in the first three votes), which continues to be the best option for me. But we'll decide together". Renzi has previously been quoted as saying that the crucial ballot will be the fourth round on Saturday, when the number of votes needed to elect a new head of State will drop to a simple majority of the 1,009 so-called 'grand electors' - lawmakers from both houses of parliament and regional representatives - or 505 votes.
He added that the PD "cannot get it wrong" this time, after the 2013 presidential vote, in which two 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, 89, resigned earlier this month.
After speaking to his party's Senators, Renzi had a half-hour face-to-face with Bersani, now a senior member of a PD minority that is harshly critical of the premier's leadership.
The M5S refused to take part in the round of talks with Renzi on Tuesday, alleging it was pointless as the premier was set to decide on the next president with Berlusconi.
The Northern League and the small rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party announced Wednesday that their presidential candidate will be 71-year-old journalist Vittorio Feltri, the former editor-in-chief of several right-leaning dailies.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
