(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 6 - Outgoing Democratic Party (PD) leader
Enrico Letta told a meeting of the centre-left group's
directorate on Thursday that he will not stick around as he
wants to make wave for a new generation to take the helm as soon
as possible.
Ex-premier Letta announced that he would stay in charge until
the party holds a congress and elects a new leader after its
disappointing showing in last month's general election, when it
got around 19% of the vote.
The centre-left alliance that the PD headed was soundly beaten
by the right coalition spearheaded by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers
of Italy (FdI) party.
"I thank those who have asked me to undertake a long-term
commitment (to be leader) but I think it would by a mistake for
you and the party," Letta said.
"I started my political activism when I was young and I was a
minister in 1998.
"It's right that our party fields a younger class of politicians
capable of challenging the government of Giorgia Meloni, a young
woman".
Letta said Meloni was "already in trouble" as she works on
preparing her government team and warned that "the honeymoon
won't go on forever".
He also said that he thinks the renewed PD should stick with its
existing symbol, saying it represents the party's "service to
Italy".
He said the relatively low number of women elected to the new
parliament was a failure for the system of representation.
He proposed the PD naming women whips in the Senate and Lower
House.
"We'll have the country's first woman premier from the other
side and, at the stage of proceedings, we have to be credible,"
Letta said. (ANSA).
PD's Letta wants to make way for new generation ASAP
Outgoing leader says symbol should remain, calls for women whips