Vendola moots anti-Renzi leftwing federation - update

(ANSA) - Rome, November 27 - 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".