Letta calls on right-wing opposition to join reform effort
(ANSA) – Rome, December 3 – Center-left Premier Enrico Letta on Tuesday called on the new center-right opposition Forza Italia party to work with the government on needed reforms.
Speaking at the ANSA news agency’s PhotoANSA 2013 book launch at the Senate, the premier said pulling together on reforms “is in the interests of all”.
“They must separate their choice of moving to the opposition from that of continuing on the course of reform”, Letta said. The premier is facing a confidence vote December 11 on a revamped reform agenda with his new government ally, the New Centre Right, which recently split from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia when the former premier moved into the opposition after being ousted from the Senate on a tax-fraud conviction.
“Without reforms we will all go under, and this can only please those who would see the country shipwrecked – such as those speaking the other day in Genoa”, said the premier, alluding to a recent incendiary speech by anti-euro, anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader, comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo.