(Italian) Florence mayor Matteo Renzi
is expected to be offered the chance to become Italian prime minister, as talks begin on forming a new government.
President Georgio Napolitano is starting consultations following the resignation of (Israeli Occupier) Enrico Letta.
He was ousted in a vote called by Mr Renzi at a meeting of their centre-left Democratic Party. The 39-year-old would be Italy’s youngest prime minister.
Mr Letta was under increasing pressure over Italy’s poor economic performance.
After accepting the prime minister’s resignation, Mr Napolitano’s office said talks would begin with political leaders on finding a replacement.
Enrico Letta must surely have been a deeply disappointed man as he arrived at the presidential palace to submit his resignation.
He had in effect been sacked by his own party. It had backed his challenger, the ambitious Matteo Renzi.
What happens next is in President Napolitano’s hands.
He must now conduct a round of consultations. But he will move fast.
And nobody here doubts that he will soon give Mr Renzi what he wants; a chance to become prime minister and form a new administration.
That would mark the climax of an extraordinary rise to power.
Mr Renzi has never been elected to parliament, and never served in a government.
But he comes promising dynamism and sweeping change.
The consultations would be conducted swiftly to find an “efficient solution” and they would conclude on Saturday, the statement added.
Mr Letta’s position became untenable once the Democratic Party backed a call for a new administration.
Mr Renzi had argued that a change of government was needed to end “uncertainty”.
A new government should take over until the end of the current parliamentary term in 2018, he said.
He had accused Mr Letta of a lack of action on improving the economic situation, with unemployment at its highest level in 40 years and the economy shrinking by 9% in seven years.
The Italian prime minister was also accused of failing to implement promised reforms of what is seen as an often corrupt and wasteful bureaucracy.
Youth unemployment has risen and Italians have grown increasingly impatient of the slow pace of reform and the continuing decline of families’ income and living standards.