Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni on Wednesday announced his intention to head Italy's nascent Democratic Party with an eye to succeeding Prime Minister Romano Prodi in a future centre- left government, according to dpa. The popular public figure unveiled his campaign and spelled out his political vision at a political meeting in Turin. "We need to build a new Italy," Veltroni told thousands of supporters, listing the environment, training, law and order and "a pact between generations" as the four pillars on which his "new Italy" should be built. In an eagerly-awaited speech frequently interrupted by applause, Veltroni described the US-led war in Iraq as "a folly" and said fighting job insecurity among the young was one of his top priorities. Veltroni, once a member of the now defunct Italian Communist Party whose childhood heroes include Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, also quoted former Swedish premier Olof Palme, a Social Democrat, who was said to have once told US President Ronald Reagan that he aspired to "abolish poverty, not the rich". The 51-year-old is expected to stand, virtually unopposed, as the first secretary of the future Democratic Party in a primary vote scheduled for October 14. The party is to be created in the autumn from the merger of the Democrats of the Left and the left-of-centre Daisy Party - the two biggest forces within Prodi's ruling nine-party coalition. Political analysts say the new formation should be able to attract the sympathies of nearly a quarter of the Italian electorate. But a survey published this week by Corriere della Sera suggests Veltroni's cross-party popularity could add an extra 11 per cent to that figure. This would make it Italy's largest party by far, well ahead of Silvio Berlusconi's conservative Forza Italia. In remarks seen as suggesting that Berlusconi fears Veltroni's ascendancy more than he is willing to admit, the opposition leader on Tuesday dismissed his future rival by saying someone who has been in politics for 40 years "cannot be considered new." The business tycoon owes much to his political success to his ability to cast himself as representing change. A former newspaper editor, cinema buff and successful novelist, Veltroni started his political career as a member of the Italian Young Communist Federation and was first elected to parliament in 1987. He served as deputy prime minister between 1996 and 1998 in Prodi's first short-lived government and became mayor of Rome in 2001. In 2006, the media-savvy politico won a second mandate as mayor of Rome with a convincing 61.4 per cent majority. Time magazine once called him "Action Man" because of his tireless efforts to improve Rome while maintaining a common touch with its people. Analysts say his popularity among both left-wing radicals and moderates puts him in an ideal position to succeed Prodi at the helm of a broad centre-left coalition that currently ranges from Catholics and liberals to unreconstructed communists. The Prodi government has a slim parliamentary majority and is fraught with internal divisions and most experts believe it will not be able to serve its full five-year term. Though it is by no means automatic, the leader of the future Democratic Party would likely be asked to head Italy's centre-left coalition and stand for the post of prime minister in a future government or general election. So highly regarded is Veltroni among left-wing leaders and supporters that few others have so far been willing to challenge him in the October primary vote.
