ITALY:As was widely anticipated, Rome mayor Walter Veltroni has won a landslide victory in Sunday's primary-style vote held to determine the leadership of Italy's new centre-left Partito Democratico (PD). Mr Veltroni polled more than 75 per cent of the votes cast by some 3.4 million voters, who each paid one euro for the chance to elect the new leader.
Mr Veltroni, a longtime ally of current centre-left prime minister Romano Prodi, has been associated for some time with the cause of creating a large US-style party that would guarantee a stable centre-left majority.
Mr Prodi currently heads a 12-party coalition that often seems paralysed by internal divisions. He has also campaigned long and hard for the formation of this new party, admitting yesterday afternoon that if the PD primary had been a failure, his government would have fallen.
The new party represents a fusion of the two major components in Mr Prodi's coalition, namely the ex-communist Democrats of the Left and the mainly ex-Christian Democrat Margherita party. Excluded, as of now, from the new formation are the radical left forces in the Prodi government, such as Rifondazione Comunista, the Greens, the Radicals and the Italian Communists.
Sunday's large turnout has come at a moment when popular opinion has been marked by a wave of anti-politica, epitomised by comedian and internet blogger Beppe Grillo.
Grillo brought hundreds of thousands on to the streets last month to protest about the dishonesty, incompetence and inefficiency of Italian politicians, be they of the right or the left.
At a news conference on Monday night, a satisfied Mr Veltroni highlighted the turnout, saying: "This is a unique event in the history of European politics: more than three million Italians have come out to vote not against someone but rather for something."
The next step for the new party will be a founding congress, due to be held on October 27th.
Voters on Sunday not only picked a party leader but also returned 2,400 delegates to national and regional constituent assemblies. In the leadership vote, Mr Veltroni's closest rivals were family minister Rosy Bindi, who polled approximately 14 per cent, and Enrico Letta, under-secretary in the prime minister's office, who polled just over 10 per cent.
In the long term, last weekend's result throws up some intriguing questions. Even though Mr Prodi and Mr Veltroni were both agreed on the need to form this new party, it remains to be seen how the two will co-exist as centre-left prime minister on the one hand and leader of the largest centre-left force on the other. Many political rivals have already called on Mr Veltroni to resign as mayor of Rome in order to concentrate on his new responsibilities.