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Italy's former PM Renzi regains leadership of center-left PD party

Xinhua, May 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

Italy's former prime minister Matteo Renzi received a fresh mandate as the secretary of center-left Democratic Party (PD) after a PD primary election held on Sunday.

According to the final results released early on Monday, some 2 million people across the country took part in the party internal election, and Renzi won about 73 percent of the votes.

Renzi's two contenders, current Justice Minister Andrea Orlando and governor of southern Puglia region Michele Emiliano, were left far behind.

The PD primaries' result propels Renzi back in a prominent position within Italy's national politics, since the new secretary will lead the PD, a pro-European force now ruling Italy's center-left cabinet, into the next general elections due in spring 2018.

Thus, the Democrats will have to face the tough competition of the party currently most popular among Italians, according to recent opinion polls: the anti-establishment and euro-skeptic Five Star Movement (M5S).

"This is an extraordinary responsibility," Renzi twitted on his account soon after first results confirmed his victory.

He thanked the party's supporters, and vowed the PD will keep "working with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's government."

Gentiloni, who's also from the PD party, replaced then prime minister Renzi in December 2016.

Renzi, 42, stepped down from the prime minister post after a harsh defeat on Dec. 5 in a constitutional referendum he had strongly advocated, and consequently quit from the leadership of the party as well.

The high turnout of the internal election on Sunday would now boost the legitimacy of his fresh mandate the PD leader. Endit