Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico
Letta has said the centre-left group's rift with the 5-Star
Movement (M5S) is "irreversible" after the M5S triggered the
crisis that led to the collapse of outgoing Premier Mario
Draghi's government of national unity last week.
The PD had been expected to make a pact with the M5S to run
together at the next general election until the M5S snubbed a
recent confidence vote on a government decree.
That sparked a crisis which culminated with three parties, the
M5S, Matteo Salvini's right-wing League and Silvio Berlusconi's
Forza Italia (FI), last Wednesday failing to take part in
another vote of confidence, which led to Draghi's resignation
and the dissolution of parliament for snap elections on
September 25.
"The rift with the 5-Stars for this election is irreversible,"
Letta told Rai television.
"We said so before.
"I'd told Conte that if he took that sort of decision, this
would be the consequence.
"We are consistent with the decision".
In an interview in Sunday's edition of La Stampa, Conte called
the PD "arrogant" and said the real progressive force of Italian
politics was the M5S, not the centre-left party.
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