Rebels can sink govt, but can't stop change, Renzi says before Italicum test

(ANSA) - Rome, April 27 - Premier Matteo Renzi has said that rebels within his own centre-left Democratic Party (PD) might be able to sink the government, but they won't be able to stop the change his executive is trying to usher in. "They can send the government home if they really want, but they can't stop the urgency for change that the PD today represents," he wrote in a letter to the coordinators of local PD branches. Renzi's government is facing stiff opposition to its bill for a new election system, the so-called Italicum, including from a minority within the PD.
    The premier has warned that his coalition executive will collapse if the bill fails to win approval.
    The floor of the Lower House will start discussing the bill on Monday in what Renzi hopes will be its final reading in parliament.
    "If this election law does not win approval, the idea of the Democratic Party as Italy's engine of change will be taken away," Renzi wrote.
    "In the votes coming up over the next few hours, the election law is at stake, but so is the dignity of our party".