New leader, old problems

摘要

When Italy's main opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD), chose Da-rio Franceschini as its leader, many assumed that he would be a stopgap. The party was in shock. Its first leader, Walter Veltroni, had quit after a disastrous election result in Sardinia. The role of the lean, bespectacled Mr Franceschini was to hold the fort until a cool-headed choice could be made in the autumn.rnIt was Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who first hinted that things might turn out differently. He warned his lieutenants not to underestimate the new man. Mr Franceschini, a young-looking 50-year-rnold, has an incisiveness altogether lacking in his predecessor. Ask him if he is a temporary leader and he instantly shoots back: "All leaders are temporary. Only Berlusconi thinks he's irreplaceable."