Premier Matteo Renzi said
Wednesday a dissenting minority within his Democratic Party (PD)
engages in a kind of reflex opposition.
"It's no longer a novelty at this point," he told reporters
in Mexico City. "There's a part of the PD that is in the
opposition on everything... the referendum decision was taken by
all of us together, if someone changed their mind I'm sorry but
they don't count".
Most PD minority faction leaders earlier declined to sign a
petition for a referendum on the government's Constitutional
reform law, saying that according to parliamentary etiquette it
should be up to the opposition alone to file such petitions.
Renzi has staked his political future on winning the
referendum, saying he will resign if he loses it. The
constitutional reform revamps Italy's political machinery to
make it cheaper and easier to operate. Among other things, it
transforms the Senate into a leaner assembly of local government
representatives with fewer powers. Among the PD minority figures
to reject signing the petition was former PD leader Pier Luigi
Bersani.
The Italian premier is in Mexico City, the first part of a
three-day North America visit that will see him at the UN in New
York Thursday and Friday.
Renzi will meet Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and
then at around 17:00 local time will speak at the ITAM tech
university.
The premier was accompanied to Mexico City by the heads of
several major Italian companies including ENI CEO Claudio
Descalzi, ENEL CEO Francesco Starace, Finmeccanica CEO Mauro
Moretti, SACE CEO Alessandro Castellano and Paolo Del Pino,
Pirelli's Latin America chief.
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