(ANSA) - Naples, November 23 - Former two-time Naples mayor and long-time Campania governor Antonio Bassolino on Monday launched his campaign for the mayoral Democratic Party (PD) primaries, in spite of his own party's opposition.
Two top PD officials said the party will likely make a new rule banning those who have already served as mayor from running for the same post again, after Bassolino announced his candidacy last Saturday.
"The party secretariat has proposed banning those who have already been mayor from running for the same office again," Friuli Venezia Giulia Governor Debora Serracchiani, a staunch Renzi supporter, told La Repubblica paper in an interview published Monday.
Serracchiani, who is also one of Renzi's deputies as PD leader, said the party is planning to hold the primaries March 20, and they will be "open to all citizens".
She was echoed by fellow PD deputy chief Lorenzo Guerini, who told La Stampa and Secolo XIX papers that "those who have already been two-term mayors had better hand over the reins".
"Let us all commit to discovering fresh new forces in society and in our party," he said. He said the same rule would apply to all ex-mayors including himself, and that the party does not need another divisive clash over candidates.
"You don't change the rules during the game but well before," said Bassolino.
"If they wanted to change the rules they should have done so before and not now after the train has already left the station," Bassolino, a veteran politician, told reporters at his first campaign appearance.
"Renzi himself is a child of the primaries," Bassolino pointed out. "(Former PD chief Pier Luigi) Bersani, who was the incumbent, was a gentleman because he set rules that allowed Renzi to run and win".
The 68-year-old first became mayor of Naples in 1993. His term was widely viewed as a period of civil, economical and social renaissance for the city. In 1997 he was re-elected with 72.9% of the votes. In October 1998, then center-left Premier Massimo D'Alema made him welfare minister. He resigned a year later, after leftwing terrorists from the Red Brigades assassinated his advisor Massimo D'Antona.
He then became governor of the Campania region from 2000-2010.
In 2013, he was indicted along with 38 others and 10 companies on waste trafficking and racketeering charges. He was cleared in October this year.