The president of Lazio, the favourite to win, captured 67% of the vote in which 1.6m party supporters cast ballots

Nicola Zingaretti, the president of Italy’s Lazio region, has become the new leader of the centre-left Democratic party after capturing a projected 67% of the vote in an election on Sunday.

More than 1.6 million party supporters cast their ballots across the country in a turnout that was higher than expected, giving the party hope that it can re-establish itself as a credible force against Italy’s populist government.

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“Long live Italian democracy, which gives us lessons whenever it can,” said Zingaretti. “I am happy for Italy.”

The vote was seen as a litmus test for the strength of Democratic party and comes a year after its administration was ousted in an embarrassing defeat in general elections that led, eventually, to the formation of a coalition government between the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). The trouncing deepened rifts within the party which, until the national elections, was led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, whose confrontational style also lost supporters.

Renzi congratulated Zingaretti on Sunday, saying he won “a wonderful and clear-cut victory”. “Now this friendly fire must stop,” he added. “Our political opponents are not at home but in the government.”

Zingaretti, whose brother Luca plays the title role in the TV series Inspector Montalbano, has led Lazio since 2013. He is regarded as a moderate leftwinger capable of uniting the party. The other two main candidates were Maurizio Martina, the party’s former caretaker leader, and Roberto Giachetti.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nicola Zingaretti casts his ballot in Rome. Photograph: Angelo Carconi/AP

The Democratic party has been accused of losing touch with voters, something that paved the way for Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister and leader of the League, to thrive. The League leads in national polls, while support for M5S has slipped.

Supporters of the Democratic party argue that it must now unite, particularly as it is fighting European elections in May, and convince people that it is a strong alternative.

“The important thing today is that there is big participation,” said Mauro Valorani, a professor in Rome who backed Zingaretti. “We need to send a strong message that we don’t like what is going on in Italy and elsewhere in the EU. There is a far-right movement building across Europe that is much better organised than it used to be. Europe is a stronghold of democracy and we need to take care of this.”

Giuseppe DeFinis, who also backed Zingaretti, said he voted “because the danger to Italy is Salvini”. He said: “He represents an obscure part of fascism, hatred towards diversity.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini. Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters

Franco Pina, who voted for Martina, said the situation was “dangerous and xenophobic”. He said: “The Democratic party leadership has made mistakes in the past, but now we must unite.”

The three leadership candidates were among the estimated 200,000 people who converged in Milan on Saturday for a demonstration against racism.

“It’s important to underline this demonstration,” said Mattia Diletti, a politics professor at Rome’s Sapienza University. “Not because of the Democratic party, but because it shows that society is pushing back against Salvini’s thoughts and hegemony.”</s>ROME — Supporters of Italy’s center-left Democratic Party elected a new leader Sunday, one year after their dramatic defeat to populist parties in the national election.

Nicola Zingaretti, who governs the Lazio region which includes Rome, won a landslide victory with more than 65 percent of the vote. He defeated Maurizio Martina — who became the party’s caretaker leader after former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned from the post following last year's election blow — and Roberto Giachetti, who was endorsed by Renzi for the job.

Out of the three candidates, Zingaretti represents the cleanest break from the past, including from Renzi's leadership, and he had widely been expected to win. The vote also represented a litmus test for the party as it has struggled to rally support and consensus in the last few years. The turnout of 1.7 million voters on Sunday exceeded supporters' expectations.

"Thank you to the part of the country that wants to stem an illiberal and dangerous government ... We will build a new Democratic Party and forge new alliances," Zingaretti said in his acceptance speech, which aired live on Facebook.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "The right wing has surged to power and won't let go of it very easily ... This gives us a big responsibility."

Zingaretti dedicated his victory to teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and promised the party would "turn the page." Analysts widely expect him to shift the party to the left and attempt to win back many left-of-center voters the party lost under Renzi, whom critics considered too pro-business.

"This is a clear victory," Renzi said of the results, in a tweet. "Let's stop the friendly fire. Our enemies are in government, not within the party."

The lower house of parliament's speaker, Roberto Fico from the 5Star Movement, was the first member of the government's ruling parties to congratulate Zingaretti in a tweet, wishing him well in his new job.</s>Voters took to the polls on Sunday to elect a new leader to represent Italy’s centre-left Democratic party, as the embattled group strives to re-establish itself as a credible force against the country’s rightwing populist government.

The vote is seen as a litmus test for the strength of the party and comes a year after its administration was ousted in an embarrassing defeat in general elections that led eventually to the formation of a coalition government between the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

One million people are projected to vote on Sunday. There has been a steady flow of people into voting booths in central Rome, while turnout is reported to be strong elsewhere across Italy.

Nicola Zingaretti, the president of the Lazio region, is widely tipped to win, but he will need to eclipse 50% of the vote in order to secure the leadership. Polls on Friday put Zingaretti ahead with 47.38%, followed by Maurizio Martina, the party’s former caretaker leader, with 38%, and Roberto Giachetti with 11%.

Zingaretti, whose brother Luca plays the title role in the TV series Inspector Montalbano, has led Lazio since 2013. He is regarded as a moderate leftwinger capable of uniting the party.

“In some areas, voting cards had run out by 11am,” Mattia Zunino, the leader of the Democratic party’s youth wing, told the Guardian. “This is good news for us and participation, especially after 4 March last year, when we had a very bad election.”

The Democratic party has been accused of losing touch with voters, something that paved the way for Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister and leader of the League, to thrive. The League leads in national polls, while support for the M5S has slipped.

Supporters of the Democratic party argue that it must now unite, particularly ahead of the European elections in May, and convince people it is a strong alternative.

“The important thing today is that there is a big participation,” said Mauro Valorani, a professor in Rome who backed Zingaretti.

“We need to send a strong message that we don’t like what is going on in Italy and elsewhere in the EU. There is a far-right movement building across Europe that is much better organised than it used to be. Europe is a stronghold of democracy and we need to take care of this.”

Giuseppe DeFinis, who also backed Zingaretti, said he voted “because the danger to Italy is Salvini”.

“He represents an obscure part of fascism, hatred towards diversity.”

Franco Pina, who voted for Martina, said the situation was “dangerous and xenophobic”.

“The Democratic party leadership has made mistakes in the past, but now we must unite,” he added.

The three main candidates were among the estimated 200,000 people who converged in Milan on Saturday for a demonstration against racism.

“It’s important to underline this demonstration,” said Mattia Diletti, a politics professor at Rome’s Sapienza University. “Not because of the Democratic party, but because it shows that society is pushing back against Salvini’s thoughts and hegemony.”

But there are two challenges the Democratic party must overcome on Sunday in order to determine its strength.

“The first is that people go to the polls – the goal is 1 million, but below that would be a defeat,” said Diletti. “The second is Zingaretti – he is going to win for sure, but the issue is getting over 50%.”</s>Italy's Democrats have new leader in bid to invigorate party

ROME (AP) — The center-left governor of Rome's region was chosen in a primary Sunday to lead Italy's struggling Democratic Party and its bid to reverse slumping popularity.

The party said Sunday night that Nicola Zingaretti, Lazio governor, won 65 percent to 70 percent of the more than 1.5 million ballots cast in a daylong primary. A complete tally wasn't immediately available.

Zingaretti had the backing of several former center-left premiers, including Paolo Gentiloni and Romano Prodi. The party lost its five-year-old hold on government in 2018 national elections and has suffered from years of leadership infighting.

As the new party secretary, Zingaretti will need to devise a strategy to woo back voters who defected to the populist 5-Star Movement, now Parliament's largest party. The Democrats are currently Parliament's largest opposition force.

While governing for the first time, the 5-Star Movement's own leadership has seen internal divisions over policy. Opinion polls indicate the movement has been eclipsed in popularity by its partner in the governing coalition, the right-wing League.

Democrats hope to capitalize on the populist government's failure to revive the economy and refusal to let migrants who are rescued at sea by humanitarian groups disembark in Italy.

On the eve of the Democratic Party primary, tens of thousands of people rallied against racism in Milan, Italy's financial capital. Many Italians fear intolerance and hatred or being fueled by the anti-migrant rhetoric of League leader Matteo Salvini, who serves as interior minister in the coalition government, and other public officials.

Zingaretti's opponents were Maurizio Martina, a former agriculture minister, and Roberto Giachetti, a prominent Rome Democrat.</s>The PD was left reeling and languishing in the polls after the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the anti-immigrant League won elections and formed a government in June of last year.

Zingaretti, who has been compared to Britain's Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn and Senator Bernie Sanders in the US, tweeted his thanks after most of the primary votes were counted, saying it was "now time to turn the page".
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Around 7,000 polling stations, including 150 abroad, had been staffed by 35,000 volunteers throughout the day, with over 1.5 million turning out.

The other candidates were Roberto Giachetti, 57, considered the closest to former PD leader and prime minister Matteo Renzi's centrist politics, and Maurizio Martina, 40, a former agriculture minister.

Zingaretti, 53, is currently the president of the Lazio region, which includes Rome, and is a former Italian Communist party member as well as a founding member of the PD in 2007. Born into a middle-class Roman family, he was a member of the European parliament and is a supporter of European federalism who has criticised austerity measures.

His Jewish mother and grandmother escaped the Nazis in 1943, while his great-grandmother died at Auschwitz. His father was a bank manager who "never missed a day of work in 40 years," he said in an interview last year.

His older brother Luca is famous in Italy for playing the title role in popular detective series Inspector Montalbano.

League leader and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini sarcastically wished Zingaretti success in his new job, while noting that turnout in PD primaries had been dropping. Zingaretti told journalists after his victory that "Salvini has created a model based on hatred and is betraying the productive north", his political opponent's political heartland.



 Nicola Zingaretti with Matteo Salvini in Rome in November 2018. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Salvini's League and the M5S have seen Italy's growth rate drop and deficit rise as they have sought to deploy expensive, populist measures against the wishes of Brussels and the markets.

Zingaretti is considered an intellectual leader, who holds social media partly responsible for turning people away from helping the collective.

"In the Colosseum 2,000 years ago the people were allowed to express judgement only with a thumbs up or down," he said in an interview last year. "Now on Facebook it's the same thing: judge but don't think."

While often disagreeing with former PD leader and prime minister Renzi, the two were never in open conflict. "Those who speak ill of others do so because they have nothing to say about themselves," Zingaretti said.

Zingaretti's policies will become clearer after the PD holds its party conference on March 17th.

READ ALSO: Italy's shattered Democratic Party tries to bounce back

All three candidates had already excluded a future alliance with the M5S, which won 220 seats in the lower house elections last year compared to the PD's 112.

The rightwing League party won 123 seats but has overtaken the M5S in opinion polls since then thanks largely to Salvini's tough anti-immigrant line.

The left is nevertheless finding its feet again, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets of Milan on Saturday for an anti-racism demonstration. The Milan demonstration was a reply to those who have imposed a policy of "closure and exclusion" that has become intolerable, elder PD statesman Romano Prodi told La Repubblica newspaper.

Renzi, who resigned after a failed referendum on constitutional reform in 2016 which Zingaretti backed, but remained PD leader until last year, voted in the primary in his hometown Florence.

The man who in 2014 became Italy's youngest-ever premier refused to publicly back a candidate, saying the "different movements that were with me over the years have divided themselves among all three candidates". Renzi, 44, appealed against infighting, whatever the result.

READ ALSO: Matteo Renzi: How the one-time great hope of the Italian left fell from grace</s>ROME (AP) — Members of Italy's Democratic Party voted for a new leader Sunday in hope of reversing their party's slumping popularity.

The primary vote by rank-and-file Democrats comes a year after the party lost its five-year hold on the Italian government amid leadership squabbles.

Whoever is chosen as Democratic Party secretary needs to woo back voters who defected to the populist 5-Star Movement, now Parliament's largest party.

While governing for the first time, the movement's own leadership has seen internal divisions over policy. Opinion polls indicate the 5-Stars have been eclipsed in popularity by their ruling coalition partner, the right-wing League.

Vying to lead the Democrats were Nicola Zingaretti, Lazio regional governor; Maurizio Martino, a former agriculture minister; and Roberto Giachetti, a prominent Rome Democrat.

Democrats hope to capitalize on the populist government's failure to revive the economy and hard line on limiting the number of migrants who enter Italy.

On the eve of the party primary, tens of thousands of people rallied against racism in Milan, Italy's financial capital. Many Italians fear the anti-migrant rhetoric of League leader Matteo Salvini, who serves as interior minister in the coalition government, and other public officials, is fueling intolerance and hatred.

The winner of the Democratic Party primary needs to garner at least one vote more than 50 percent of all ballots cast. If no candidate secures a majority, the new leader will be chosen later by a 1,000-delegate party assembly.</s>ROME, March 3 (Reuters) - Supporters of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) voted on Sunday to elect a new leader one year after the group lost power in a humbling defeat at a national, parliamentary election.

Previously led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, the PD was thrown into turmoil by the 2018 ballot box beating as the electorate punished the party for not doing enough to tackle growing poverty, high unemployment and mass immigration.

Following months of internal feuding, three candidates have put themselves forward -- the governor of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, the interim PD chief Maurizio Martina and Roberto Giachetti, who is seen as the closest to Renzi.

Sunday's primary election is being held in some 7,000 voting booths set up around Italy by PD supporters.

Opinion polls suggest Zingaretti, whose actor-brother plays the lead role in the Italian TV police drama Inspector Montalbano, should win more than 50 percent of the vote.

If he fails to take an outright majority, party chiefs will gather on March 17 to decide the matter.

The primary vote comes at a time of growing tension within Italy's coalition government as the far-right League and anti-system 5-Star Movement struggle to overcome growing policy disputes in the face of an unexpected economic slowdown.

In a heartening sign for Italy's left, tens of thousands took to the streets of the financial capital Milan on Saturday to denounce racism and the anti-migrant policies of the League -- the largest such protest since the government took office.

The League has surged in the polls on the back of its anti-immigration stance, with a survey in Corriere della Sera daily at the weekend putting its support at 35.9 percent, more than double the 17.4 percent it won in last March's ballot.

By contrast support for 5-Star has dropped to 21.2 percent from 32.7 percent, as the group struggles to adjust from life as a vociferous, opposition force to a ruling government party.

Corriere put backing for the PD at 18.5 percent, little changed from a year ago but up from 16.1 percent that it registered in a similar survey at the start of February.

All three PD leadership contenders have ruled out cutting any coalition deals with 5-Star in future and say early elections would be needed if the current government fell.

Renzi, whose confrontational leadership style made him a highly divisive figure both inside and outside his party, has not openly backed any of the three candidates but has dismissed speculation that he might breakaway to create his own group.

"Whoever wins should not fear from me the guerrilla warfare that I suffered," he wrote in a Facebook post at the weekend, referring to the ferocious PD infighting that marked his time in charge and eventually led to a party schism. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by David Evans)</s>Nicola Zingaretti is now the new leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party.

The 53-year-old president of the Lazio region received more than 65 percent of the votes during the primary election over the weekend.

The party is the main opposition to the coalition government between the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

More than 1.7 million Italians voted according to officials, which is more than expected.

The group will now work towards re-establishing itself as a strong force against the populist government.

The election was triggered by the resignation of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi when he stepped down after losing in the general election last year.

Now the challenge will be to unite the party and confront the far-right which is growing huge support.</s>Italy's Democrats are voting for a new leader in a bid to reverse their party's slumping popularity.

Sunday's primary among rank-and-file members comes a year after the Democrats lost its five-year hold on government amid leadership squabbles.

Whoever is chosen Democratic Party secretary needs to woo back voters who defected to the populist 5-Star Movement, now Parliament's largest party. While governing for the first time, the Movement's own leadership has developed cracks over policy, and opinion polls indicate they've been eclipsed in popularity by their right-wing coalition League partner.

Vying to lead the Democrats were Nicola Zingaretti, Lazio regional governor; Maurizio Martino, a former agriculture minister, and Roberto Giachetti, a prominent Rome Democrat.

Democrats hope to capitalize on the populist government's failure to revive the economy.</s>ROME (Reuters) - Nicola Zingaretti, the governor of the central Lazio region, was elected as head of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) on Sunday, one year after the group lost power in a humbling national elections defeat.

More than 1.6 million PD supporters cast ballots at makeshift voting booths around the country, the party said, a much higher turnout than expected indicating a renewal of interest in the group following its 2018 rout.

Zingaretti, whose brother Luca plays the lead role in the Italian TV police drama Inspector Montalbano, won more than 60 percent the vote, according to early returns. His two rivals, Maurizio Martina and Roberto Giachetti, swiftly conceded.

He is viewed as a moderate and will be tasked with restoring unity to a party that was torn apart by schisms under its previous leader - former prime minister Matteo Renzi, whose confrontational style made him a highly divisive figure.

Accused of not doing enough to tackle poverty, high unemployment and mass immigration, the PD was trounced last year by populist forces, sparking months of internal feuding and soul-searching ahead of Sunday’s primary vote.

“Nicola Zingaretti has won a wonderful and clearcut victory. Now this friendly fire must stop. Our political opponents are not at home but in the government,” Renzi said on Twitter.

The PD primary comes at a time of growing tension within Italy’s coalition government as the far-right League and anti-system 5-Star Movement struggle to overcome deep policy disputes in the face of an unexpected economic slowdown.

In a heartening sign for the left, tens of thousands took to the streets of the financial capital Milan on Saturday to denounce racism and the anti-migrant policies of the League in the largest such protest since the government took office.

The League has surged in the polls on the back of its anti-immigration stance, with a survey in Corriere della Sera daily at the weekend putting its support at 35.9 percent, more than double the 17.4 percent it won in last March’s ballot.

By contrast, support for 5-Star has dropped to 21.2 percent from 32.7 percent, as the group struggles to adjust from life as a vociferous, opposition force to a ruling government party.

Corriere put backing for the PD at 18.5 percent, little changed from a year ago but up from the 16.1 percent it registered in a similar survey at the start of February.

All three PD leadership contenders had ruled out cutting any coalition deals with 5-Star in the future and say early elections would be needed if the current government fell.

Renzi did not back any of the PD candidates, but has dismissed speculation that he might form a breakaway group.

Zingaretti’s first major test will be to lead the party into European parliamentary elections in May. The PD won more than 40 percent of the vote in the last EU ballot in 2014, before falling rapidly out of favour with the electorate.
Governor of Lazio, Nicola Zingaretti, wins the leadership election by a landslide, defeating Maurizio Martina and Roberto Giachetti, and becoming the new Secretary of the Democratic Party.