Speaking at Florence’s Obihall, backed by the slogan of his electoral campaign in inverted letters, ‘L’Italia cambia verso’ [Italy changes direction], new Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi thanked the people of Italy, his wife and his opponents.
With 67.8 percent of the vote and approximately 3 million Italians making the effort to their local polling stations, 38-year-old Matteo Renzi’s landslide victory makes him one of the youngest political leaders in Europe, younger than Tony Blair or Bettino Craxi when they took charge of the British Labour and Italian Socialist parties respectively.
At Obihall, the incumbent mayor of Florence immediately reiterated the promises made in his electoral campaign: ‘There are no more excuses. We can wait no longer for someone else to arrive and to complain about us… You have given me the captain’s band; I will fight for every single ball.’
Italian prime minister Enrico Letta commented that, ‘With Matteo Renzi we will work together as a team that will be profitable and useful for the country and for the centre-left.’
Renzi is expected to present a proposal for an electoral reform as early as January 2014.
