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ROME — Seven years after being ousted as Italy’s prime minister, Enrico Letta is back on the political front line as leader of the center-left Democratic Party.
Letta, who led a coalition government from 2013 to 2014, was solicited by senior Democrats to run the party after its previous head, Nicola Zingaretti, quit last week, complaining of infighting.
Democrats are hoping Letta, viewed as a political heavyweight, can revive the party’s diminished popularity to its 2014 peak.
On Twitter, Letta said he felt “no lack of emotion” when returning Sunday to the Democratic Party (PD) headquarters in Rome for its national assembly, seven years after he was unceremoniously pushed out as prime minister by then-party leader Matteo Renzi.
Most recently, Letta has been serving as the dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po university.
The assembly on Sunday elected Letta, the only candidate for the position, as leader with 860 votes in favor, two against and four abstentions.
In his speech at the assembly, Letta vowed to lead a party with “progressive values ” and “reformist methods.” Coming out of the pandemic, he added, “we as the PD must not engage in navel-gazing but fix our gaze on society.”
Party members welcomed Letta’s return.
“Thank you to Enrico #Letta for having chosen to guide the PD in such a complicated phase,” tweeted Laura Boldrini, a PD MP and former speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Italy’s lower house of parliament. “We must regenerate the PD and open it to the public and the progressive sector. We must be close to the people and their needs especially now.”
The PD is the second Italian political party to have a major shake-up since Mario Draghi took over as prime minister. Draghi’s appointment split the 5Star Movement, with one wing rebelling over the party’s decision to back Draghi’s appointment. Former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has since agreed to help refound the movement.
Nicola Lupo, director of the Center for Parliament Studies at Luiss University in Rome, said that Draghi’s leadership is acting as a catalyst for change in Italy’s political system. And the changes are putting in place leaders with more European affiliations, he noted.
“While Zingaretti did not have the background and CV of a leader of European standing, Letta has always been attentive to the European dynamic,” Lupo said.
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