Italy’s ex-PM to form new party, shaking gov’t coalition
ROME (Reuters) — Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced on Tuesday he was leaving the center-left Democratic Party (PD) to set up his own party, in a move that raised tensions in the new ruling coalition and could undermine its stability.
Renzi, who led a PD government from 2014-2016, had a leading role in forming the coalition this month after Matteo Salvini’s hard-right League walked out of an alliance with the 5-Star Movement in the vain hope of triggering an early election.
Renzi stressed that his new party would continue to back the government, but his former colleagues and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte were still dismayed by a decision analysts say may threaten the government’s medium-term prospects.
“I have decided to leave the Democratic Party and to build a new house together with others,” Renzi wrote on Facebook.
He said the party would be called “Italia Viva,” a play on words deriving from “Viva l’Italia!” (Long Live Italy!) that could be loosely translated as “Alive Italy” or “Italy Lives.”
The 5-Star/PD coalition will now have to rely for their majority on a new party with its own agenda, complicating policy negotiations.
“This is not a mortal threat to the government yet, but it increases fragmentation and makes its prospects less rosy,” said Francesco Galietti, head of political risk consultancy Policy Sonar.
The spread between yields on Italian benchmark bonds and German Bunds widened to 140 basis points, from 133 on Monday.
Conte, a technocrat close to 5-Star, said he was “puzzled” by Renzi’s move, which altered the political balance in parliament and was badly timed just after the government was formed, according to a statement issued by Conte’s office.
Renzi said Conte had nothing to fear. “For me this government can go on until 2023,” he told RAI state television, referring to the natural end of the parliamentary term.
In an earlier interview with la Repubblica daily, Renzi said his new party would enlarge the government’s majority.