The executive of Popular
Alernative (AP) on Monday asked its founders Beatrice Lorenzin,
Fabrizio Cicchitto and Maurizio Lupi, as well as deputy
coordinator Antonio Gentile, to find a way for both parts of the
centrist party "to survive".
One part looks to continue the alliance with the ruling
centre-left Democratic Party (PD) while the other is looking to
run alone at next year's general election and to dialogue with
ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party.
The AP executive adjourned until tomorrow at 18:00.
Last week AP leader Angelino Alfano, the foreign minister,
said he would not be standing at the next general election.
He said he was retiring from office, but not from politics,
because of a string of strong personal attacks on him.
AP was founded in March as a merger of Alfano's New Centre
Right, the UDC and other small centrist parties.
Alfano, once Berlusconi's heir apparent, formed the New
Centre Right in November 2013 in a split from the then People fo
Freedom (PdL) party which was set to return to be called Forza
Italia, after the party with which Berlusconi won his first
election in 1994.
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