Strasbourg, 05/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference on the fringe of the plenary session, Francesco Rutelli, centre-left candidate to head the Italian Government in the general elections of 13 May and member of the Liberal and Democrat Group in the EP, set out the priority subjects of his campaign, speaking out in favour of a genuine "European government". Like many others, moreover, Rutelli would like the Union's reform process to be completed by end-2003, to avoid a "constitutional bottleneck" (due to the European elections of 2004 and the arrival of a new European Commission). Questioned on the Italian elections, while saying that he wanted to speak about Europe rather than Italy, Mr. Rutelli referred to a certain amount of "serenity" compared to his opponent Silvio Berlusconi.
Andrew Duff, British Liberal democrat, said at the same press conference that the election of Mr. Rutelli would confirm the European line being followed by Italy since the time of the founding fathers, whereas the election of Berlusconi would represent "a dramatic break" with the past.