ITALY:Popular mayor of Rome and former deputy prime minister Walter Veltroni yesterday formally launched his candidacy to lead the new Democratic Party, a combination of Democratic Left (DS) and La Margherita, the two biggest parties in the nine-party centre-left coalition led by Italian prime minister Romano Prodi.
Speaking in the northern industrial city of Turin, Mr Veltroni expressed his hope the new party would create a sense of unity, "demanded by centre-left voters".
Given that leaders of the DS and Margherita have publicly endorsed Mr Veltroni's candidacy, he is likely to face only token opposition when the new party holds an October 14th primary election.
In effect, this also means he is poised to succeed Romano Prodi, leading the centre left in Italy's next general election.
Given the fragile nature of Mr Prodi's coalition, that election may come long before 2011, the year Mr Prodi's term of office expires.
Just last February, the government almost fell after losing a crucial foreign policy vote in the Senate when extreme leftist senators broke ranks and voted against the prime minister.
With a senate majority of one, the government has regularly relied on the votes of some of the seven non-elected life senators to steer legislation through.
Even before his government encountered those recent difficulties, Mr Prodi had argued strongly for the creation of a broad-based centre-left party that would help forge consensus among his disparate and oft-divided allies.
At first, it seemed Mr Prodi himself was the obvious candidate to lead the new party, but he ruled that out earlier this year when pledging to retire from politics when his term ends.
Opinion polls show Mr Veltroni's leadership of the new Democratic Party could see the centre left's support boosted to 35 per cent, four points more than that recorded by the Olive Tree coalition of DS and Margherita, with which Mr Prodi narrowly won last year's general election.
Affable and elegant, Mr Veltroni is well known as a movie buff and arts lover who has used his term as mayor of Rome to promote a variety of tourist and arts events, including a hugely popular notte bianca, or annual all-night party featuring concerts, art and theatre all across Rome.
Speaking last night, Mr Veltroni thanked Mr Prodi, saying the new party's first priority would be to offer "its full support" to the Prodi government.
He added: "The Democratic Party will be the great reformist force that Italy has never had. The new Italy has to start from addressing four major issues - the environment, education, law and order, and the realisation of a new pact between generations."