Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi won a primary vote to become leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD). Data from polling booths showed Renzi took 68 percent of the vote in a three-way race to lead the largest party in parliament and in the ruling coalition.
Almost three million people cast a primary ballot - far more than envisioned - a clear sign, Renzi said, that voters want to renew the party, founded six years ago by merging elements of the former communist party and left-leaning centrists.
One of the country’s most popular political figures in the past two years, Renzi will not join the government, but is likely to lead the PD into the next election as its candidate for prime minister. His victory gives him influence over the fragile coalition government and the timing of the next elections.
"This is the end of group of party leaders, not of the left," Renzi told his supporters in a victory speech in Florence last night, after promising to unify the party. "Now it's up to a new generation, my friends. It's our turn to drive the car."
For his charisma and goal to remodel Italy's left, the Florence mayor is sometimes compared to Britain's Tony Blair; at the same time, his direct speaking style and media savvy also draw comparisons to the centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi.
Lower taxes are a central part of his programme, as are promises to change the electoral law, overhaul labour rules, and eliminate the privileges of the political class.
