News Analysis: Italian PM struggles to rein party ahead of presidential election

The week ahead of Jan. 29, when voting to choose the next Italian president will kick off, is crucial for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his troubled center-left Democratic Party (PD).

Less than one year after he was sworn in as the "demolition man" who campaigned to put aside the senescent political class and re-launch his country mired in crisis, Renzi now has to cope with the election of the head of state amid growing rifts within his party.

When Renzi in 2013 won the primary to become the PD leader, the leftist minority within the party, which includes many veterans, did not appreciate his move to call a voting for a government change, which forced party fellow and then prime minister Enrico Letta to resign and give way to him.

Renzi later won the backing of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for key institutional reforms. The multi-prosecuted tycoon is doing one year of social work to serve a conviction for tax fraud.

"The PD leftist minority is against this alliance, which is at odds with the party's strategy," Massimo Franco, a columnist of Corriere della Sera newspaper and noted author, told Xinhua.

In recent days, the existing tensions were inflamed by dissatisfaction in the minority about Renzi's decisiveness and many of his government's reforms, including a labor law and plans to reduce Italy's bureaucracy. On Tuesday, a group of 29 PD senators threatened not to back a much-awaited voting reform intended to replace the current dysfunctional system.

There was also speculation that the PD could split after last week a member who made the history of the Italian left, Sergio Cofferati, quit the party. Cofferati complained of voting irregularities after he lost the primary to a Renzi loyalist for the governorship of the northwestern region of Liguria.

"Renzi had been trying to show that his party was compact in the task of electing a new president, but Cofferati's move highlighted a conflict within the PD," Franco said.

Everybody in Italy remembers of last presidential elections, when ageing Giorgio Napolitano reluctantly accepted to be re-appointed for an unprecedented second tenure to avert a crisis after the PD was unable to agree on a successor amid internal fights.

"Renzi seems to have realized he will not be able to appoint a president too close to him," Franco said. In fact, experts believe the next head of state will be a compromise candidate with political skills and constitutional knowledge.

Italy's presidents are usually chosen among respected figures who are acceptable to both left and right for the key role of balancing the work of governments.

"Renzi has the only objective to elect a president and avoid the risk of political collapse. If a president is elected, his government will be consolidated," Jacopo Iacoboni, a journalist at La Stampa newspaper and frequent political commentator, explained to Xinhua.

The Italian head of state will be named by 1,009 electors, including deputies, senators and 58 regional representatives, with a majority vote cast by two-thirds of the assembly in the first three rounds of balloting, after which a simple majority is sufficient.

In times of economic stagnancy and social discontent, choosing Napolitano's successor as quickly as possible would be important in order to avoid political uncertainty and market nervousness.

Renzi, whose party has 415 deputies and senators, has said he hopes the new president to be elected by the fourth voting session, Iacoboni noted. "The huge problem is that the voting for presidential election takes place by secret ballot, so that the degree of uncertainly is high," he stressed.

For example the leftist minority, which appears to count 160 deputies and senators, may push for a different candidate from the one chosen by Renzi's majority. "Such a scenario would put certain pressure on him," Iacoboni pointed out.

No parties have revealed their candidates so far, though as many as 40 names of potential presidents have been mentioned by the local press in the past weeks, from politicians including former prime ministers and current ministers to respected personalities such as the European Central Bank (ECB) head Mario Draghi and cultural figures such as conductor Riccardo Muti.

But a few people of the list - former prime minister Giuliano Amato, constitutional court judge Sergio Mattarella, centrist leader Pier Ferdinando Casini and central bank governor Ignazio Visco - have been indicated as possible choices valid for both the PD and Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party.

"Compared to the last presidential election, Renzi has a stronger political background to rely on," Iacoboni told Xinhua. Yet, he warned, the alliance with Berlusconi will be not sufficient to ensure a smooth voting.

"Berlusconi has not the same power that he had a few years ago and there are growing divisions within his party too," Iacoboni highlighted. Endit