Premier Paolo Gentiloni said
that Italy was "more stable" in an interview with Turin-based
daily La Stampa on Tuesday on the anniversary of him taking
office.
"The country has overcome the most serious crisis and it must
not waste the common efforts made," he said.
Former foreign minister Gentiloni took over the helm of
government when ex-premier Matteo Renzi quit a year ago after
his flagship Constitutional reform was rejected in a referendum.
Democratic Party (PD) leader Renzi is set to be the
centre-right group's premier candidate in elections due to take
place early in 2018.
The PD is set to run alone, or with a small group of alliance
partners, at the election after being spurned by the new
leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) party led by Senate Speaker Pietro
Grasso.
At the moment polls put the PD behind the anti-establishment
5-Star Movement (M5S) and a coalition of a centre-right parties.
Senior LeU member Pier Luigi Bersani, a former PD leader who
was among a group to break away due to hostility to Renzi this
year, said he did not agree with Gentiloni's assessment.
"It is debatable whether they are leaving Italy more stable,"
Bersani told Radio Anch'io.
"Stability depends on the inequality rate and that has
grown".
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