ROME: Italy’s president may ask young centre-left leader Matteo Renzi to become its youngest ever prime minister this weekend after a party coup that forced Enrico Letta to resign as premier of the eurozone state struggling to pull out of recession.
Letta bowed out on Friday after the leadership of his Democratic Party (PD) forced him to step aside and make way for Renzi, 39, who is promising bold economic reforms and a government than can survive until 2018.
President Giorgio Napolitano expects to complete a round of consultations with parties in the evening and could summon Renzi, the PD secretary and current mayor of Florence, soon afterwards to form a government, sources in the party said.
After receiving a mandate from the president, Renzi will have to strike an accord with the small New Centre Right party, whose support the PD needs to command a majority in the parliament of the euro zone’s third-largest economy.
The party split from scandal-plagued tycoon and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi last year.
REUTERS
