Brussels, 24/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 24 April, 46-six-year-old Enrico Letta, Deputy Secretary General of the Centre-Left Italian Democratic Party, accepted the task of forming the next Italian government, news that was immediately welcomed by 74-yaer-old Giuliano Amato, the other bookies' favourite for prime minister. Letta said his priorities as PM would be tackling youth unemployment, changing the electoral law and getting the EU to focus more on growth. He said from the Quirinale building that austerity policies were no longer enough.
On Thursday, Letta will enter consultations in order to form a broad-based coalition government as quickly as possible, possibly even from the very next day, combining his own party, the PD with the Centre-Right PDL of Silvio Berlusconi and Centrists under Mario Monti. The Northern League and Five Star Movement (M5S) of Beppe Grillo will remain in the opposition. M5S won the greatest number of seats in the election and has promised to advocate “constructive opposition”. It will not be easy to negotiate a coalition because of clashes within the PD, some of which does not want to be forced to work with Berlusconi's PDL on solving the economic crisis. PDL Secretary General Angelino Alfano says that the PDL will only back a serious government that has the full backing of the Democratic Party.
Letta is on the Christian Democrat side of the PD. He was European Affairs Minister and then Industry Minister in 1998 and 1999 under PM Massimo d'Alema, an MEP in 2004 and head of cabinet of the Prodi government in 2006. Since 2009, he has been the PD deputy secretary. He is the nephew of Gianni Letta, a close adviser to Silvio Berlusconi. (FG/transl.fl)