Grasso meets PD's Fassino as centre left attempts dialogue

(ANSA) - Rome, November 15 - Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso met Democratic Party (PD) representative Piero Fassino at the Upper House on Wednesday. Fassino, a former minister and the ex mayor of Turin, has been tasked by the ruling PD to hold talks with other parties in view of a possible centre-left coalition for a general election set to be held early next year.
    Grasso recently quit the PD in protest at how a new election law was pushed through parliament and is expected to align with one of several parties to the left of it.
    These include the MDP, a group made mostly of former PD members who split earlier this year due to hostility with party leader and former premier Matteo Renzi. The centre left is in disarray after a poor showing in this month's regional elections in Sicily and Renzi made overtures to other parties on the left of the political spectrum at a crunch PD meeting on Monday. In a statement, however, Grasso stressed that the talks were part of a period of listening and reflection as, in his institutional role, he was not in a position to tackle issues linked to possible future coalitions. The Progressive Field (CP) party of former Milan mayor Giuliano Pisapia, meanwhile, said Wednesday that it will not be possible to form a centre-left alliance for next year's election unless it is based on breaking with the policies adopted by the centre-left-led governments of Renzi and current Premier Paolo Gentiloni. "There can be no unity without discontinuity," CP said in statement. "If there is no unity we lose, but without discontinuity, the whole country loses".