Saturday, 11 May 2013 20:04
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
ROME: Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), reeling from infighting that forced the resignation of Pier Luigi Bersani last month, chose former trade union boss Guglielmo Epifani as party secretary on Saturday.The party's two most prominent leaders, Prime Minister Enrico Letta and the young mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, both sat out the internal party contest, with the real battle to lead the centre-left likely to be delayed until after the summer.The PD's weakness has compounded problems confronting Letta as he tries to hold a fragile coalition together while facing deep recession, youth unemployment of almost 40 percent and public bitterness reflected in the success of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.Epifani, a former head of Italy's biggest union the CGIL, was the sole candidate at a special assembly in Rome but he was widely seen as a compromise stand-in until a full party congress in October."The Democratic Party has been going through ...