Gentiloni marks one year in office (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, December 12 - Premier Paolo Gentiloni said that Italy was "more stable" in an interview with Turin-based daily La Stampa on Tuesday on the anniversary of him taking office.
    "The country has overcome the most serious crisis and it must not waste the common efforts made," he said. Former foreign minister Gentiloni took over the helm of government when ex-premier Matteo Renzi quit a year ago after his flagship Constitutional reform was rejected in a referendum.
    Democratic Party (PD) leader Renzi is set to be the centre-right group's premier candidate in elections due to take place early in 2018. The PD is set to run alone, or with a small group of alliance partners, at the election after being spurned by the new leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) party led by Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso.
    At the moment polls put the PD behind the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and a coalition of a centre-right parties.
    Senior LeU member Pier Luigi Bersani, a former PD leader who was among a group to break away due to hostility to Renzi this year, said he did not agree with Gentiloni's assessment. "It is debatable whether they are leaving Italy more stable," Bersani told Radio Anch'io. "Stability depends on the inequality rate and that has grown".