Cottarelli agrees to stand for centre left

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 10 - The former head of the International Monetary Fund's financial bureau Carlo Cottarelli on Wednesday agreed to run in the September 25 general election for the centre-left alliance of the Democratic Party (PD) and More Europe (+E).
    "I have accepted the PD and More Europe's offer to stand in the election," said the 67-year-old economist from Cremona, who was briefly tapped to try to form a government after initially inconclusive elections in 2018.
    Cottarelli said the centre left's adversary, the right/centre-right alliance led by post-fascist Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni "offers a conservative vision" of society.
    Meloni, who is running with the anti-migrat League of former interior minister Matteo Salvini and the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party of three-time former premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, has called for a "naval blockade" to stop migrants arriving in Italy, the legality of which has been questioned.
    PD leader and former premier Enrico Letta said Cottarelli would be a "spearhead in the election campaign".
    He said the economist, a popular and authoritative commentator on TV, would give Italians "the feeling that they are in good hands".
    Letta argued that the choice of a centrist economist as a leading candidate did not contradict the PD's alliance with two leftwing parties, Italian Left (SI) and Green Europe (EV).
    He said the PD's aim was to continue to "grow our appeal" on the left and in the centre.
    SI on Wednesday announced that two other well-known media figures, Ilaria Cucchi and Aboubakar Soumahoro, would be standing in its alliance with EV.
    Cucchi has gained a platform with her fight for justice in the police brutality death of her brother Stefano.
    Ivorian-Italian trade unionist Soumahoro has risen to prominence in fighting for the rights of the marginalised, especially the victims of slave labour and gang masters. (ANSA).