Renzi demands new rules for centre-left primaries (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - Premier Matteo Renzi has called for new rules on the way the centre left chooses its candidates to ensure that the losers do not scupper the campaigns of the winners after defeat. He said in an interview for a new book by veteran TV journalist Bruno Vespa that primaries should be staged for candidates for top positions such as "mayors, governors and the party leader-premier candidate". But he added that "those who lose must help". "You can either decide to run them (primaries), and in that case they cannot be fake, or you can let the party choose its candidates," he said.
    Renzi's reflections may have been prompted by the experience of centre-left primaries in Liguria this year.
    Former Bologna mayor and CGIL union leader Sergio Cofferati left Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) amid claims of irregularities after losing to Raffaella Paita in regional primaries in January.
    Cofferati went on to back an alternative left-wing candidate, Luca Pastorino, in regional elections and the centre left lost, with centre-right candidate Giovanni Toti taking 34.4% of the vote, Paita 27.84% and Pastorino 9.41%.