Grillo demands president list from Renzi

(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - Beppe Grillo and Gianroberto Casaleggio, the leaders of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), on Thursday demanded that Premier Matteo Renzi give them a list of the candidates that he is considering proposing for president before the start of voting for the new head of State next week. "We ask Renzi for the list of names that he will present so we can put them to a vote of our members," read a post on Grillo's popular website, which gave life to the Internet-based M5S in 2009. Grillo and Casaleggio added that the choice of the next head of State, the arbiter of Italian politics, should not be decided on the basis of another deal between Renzi and three-time premier Berlusconi, the leader of the opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
    They also bemoaned the fact that this is likely, in their opinion.
    The government is currently pushing through bills in parliament for a new election law and an overhaul of Italy's slow, costly political apparatus that are the result of the so-called Nazareno pact Berlusconi and Renzi struck last year.
    "We've reached the eve of the vote for the president and only one thing is certain: the names of the pretenders will be chosen by two people who will discuss candidates and their advantages, above all personal ones, in a closed room," the post read.
    "This is the denial of democracy. The Berlusconi-Renzi duo will dictate the names to vote on and a Nazareno president will emerge, while we wait for them to form a single party of the nation".