Venice mayor to quit politics
Massimo Cacciari says he has seen defeat enough times
02 November, 16:14
(ANSA) - Rome, November 2 - Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari
has announced his intention to quit politics altogether once
his current mandate expires next year.
In an interview published in Monday's edition of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, the philosophy professor said ''I have no intention of running for anything anymore. As of next year I will no longer be mayor of Venice nor a member of parliament. Enough! How many times does one have to be defeated in their lives''.
''I have every intention to continue to say what I feel but I will not longer take on any role in any organization. I've done my share, it's time to be realistic,'' the 65-year-old mayor added.
Looking back at his political past, Cacciari said ''thirty years ago when others were in power I hoped to promote change within the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Then I joined the (ex-PCI) Democrats of the Left (PdS), then the Party of Mayors, (ex-premier Romano) Prodi's Democrats, the Daisy alliance and in the end the Democratic party (PD)''.
Now that the PD is in the hands of Pierluigi Bersani and centrist Francesco Rutelli has left the party, because he sees it as a reincarnation of a center-left dominated by the ex-PCI, Cacciari said he is out, too.
''What Rutelli is saying now, I've been saying for a long time. Now I've got nothing left to say,'' he added.
The Venice mayor ruled out joining the centrist movement Rutelli would like to create from other disaffected PD memebrs and join with the Union of Center (UDC) party of Pier Ferdinando Casini.
''I couldn't care less, power makes me laugh. I respect people like Rutelli and others, our friendship goes back a long way. I share his reasoning but I have nothing in common with the UDC nor with other groups,'' including Bersani's PD.
''I wish Bersani success, but what will the new 'thing' be, another creation of (ex-PCI secretary Massimo) D'Alema? The PD is in a jam. An accord with the center is inevitable and what appears on the horizon, a First Republic-style center-left, is an old plan of D'Alema which does not interest me culturally. Even if it is the only way to beat (conservative Premier Silvio) Berlusconi,'' Cacciari said.
Cacciari started his political activism on the far left but then joined the PCI. He left the party after the death of its reformist leader Enrico Berlinguer in 1984 but returned to politics, after a tenure in academia, when he was elected mayor of Venice in 1993 on a PdS ticket.
His political career ebbed when he was defeated in the race for governor of the Veneto region, a post which would have thrown him into the national spotlight, but he made a comeback in 2005 when he was returned as mayor of the lagoon city.
In an interview published in Monday's edition of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, the philosophy professor said ''I have no intention of running for anything anymore. As of next year I will no longer be mayor of Venice nor a member of parliament. Enough! How many times does one have to be defeated in their lives''.
''I have every intention to continue to say what I feel but I will not longer take on any role in any organization. I've done my share, it's time to be realistic,'' the 65-year-old mayor added.
Looking back at his political past, Cacciari said ''thirty years ago when others were in power I hoped to promote change within the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Then I joined the (ex-PCI) Democrats of the Left (PdS), then the Party of Mayors, (ex-premier Romano) Prodi's Democrats, the Daisy alliance and in the end the Democratic party (PD)''.
Now that the PD is in the hands of Pierluigi Bersani and centrist Francesco Rutelli has left the party, because he sees it as a reincarnation of a center-left dominated by the ex-PCI, Cacciari said he is out, too.
''What Rutelli is saying now, I've been saying for a long time. Now I've got nothing left to say,'' he added.
The Venice mayor ruled out joining the centrist movement Rutelli would like to create from other disaffected PD memebrs and join with the Union of Center (UDC) party of Pier Ferdinando Casini.
''I couldn't care less, power makes me laugh. I respect people like Rutelli and others, our friendship goes back a long way. I share his reasoning but I have nothing in common with the UDC nor with other groups,'' including Bersani's PD.
''I wish Bersani success, but what will the new 'thing' be, another creation of (ex-PCI secretary Massimo) D'Alema? The PD is in a jam. An accord with the center is inevitable and what appears on the horizon, a First Republic-style center-left, is an old plan of D'Alema which does not interest me culturally. Even if it is the only way to beat (conservative Premier Silvio) Berlusconi,'' Cacciari said.
Cacciari started his political activism on the far left but then joined the PCI. He left the party after the death of its reformist leader Enrico Berlinguer in 1984 but returned to politics, after a tenure in academia, when he was elected mayor of Venice in 1993 on a PdS ticket.
His political career ebbed when he was defeated in the race for governor of the Veneto region, a post which would have thrown him into the national spotlight, but he made a comeback in 2005 when he was returned as mayor of the lagoon city.
