Walter Veltroni, the Mayor of Rome who is seen by many as Italy’s Prime Minister in waiting, yesterday vowed to reverse decades of Italian political instability through a programme of “reform, innovation and generational change” inspired by Tony Blair.

Mr Veltroni, 52, a former deputy Prime Minister, was elected as the first leader of Italy’s new Democratic Party in primaries held on Sunday, with 75 per cent of the vote.

Victory makes him successor-in-waiting to Romano Prodi, the Centre Left Prime Minister, at the next general election, which is due in 2011 but could come much sooner, given Mr Prodi’s fragile majority.

In an exclusive interview with The Times at his office at the Campidoglio on Capitol Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum, the bespectacled and youthful looking Mr Veltroni vowed to take his party onto the centre ground of Italian politics.

The new Democratic Party, which holds its first congress on October 27, is a fusion of two Centre Left parties, the Democrats of the Left - the former Communists - and the Margherita, a faction of liberals and left wing Catholics. After its formation at the weekend, it overtakes Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia as the largest party in Parliament.

Mr Berlusconi affected indifference, observing that the emergence of Mr Veltroni creates rivalry between him and Mr Prodi, whose already shaky grip on power will be further weakened. The Democratic Party moreover does not include the Far Left, on which Centre Left governments have relied for a majority.

Mr Veltroni’s strategy is to seize the centre ground, “Blair style” - and the Right is rattled. Yesterday Mr Veltroni insisted he would remain mayor of Rome, and had no intention of undermining Mr Prodi. “I have worked at Romano’s side for many years, and we are close friends,” he said. “He is Prime Minister, and his job is to govern by seeking a consensus in the ruling coalition: my job is to create the identity and profile of a new great party of reform and innovation.”

Mr Veltroni’s critics say rowdiness, street crime and urban decay have risen during his time as mayor. He is hugely popular however for making Rome a vibrant city of free concerts, films and cultural events, bringing acts from Paul McCartney to Elton John to the Colosseum, and for reviving Rome’s poorer suburbs, as well as doubling the number of tourists to the Eternal City.

He wears button down shirts, retains his youthful admiration for the Kennedys - he published a book about Robert Kennedy in 1992, “The Broken Dream” - loves jazz and films (he created the Rome Film Festival, which opens tomorrow and writes novels. He was re-elected mayor last year with an unprecedented 62 per cent of the vote.

A former Communist youth leader turned social democrat, Mr Veltroni believes younger Italians will see the new party as a vehicle for change, and says his election belies the current climate of disillusionment with mainstream politics. Three and a half million people turned out in the primaries, “far more than we expected. Italians tend to vote against something - this time they voted for something.” He said in the past Left and Right had “formed alliances and then tried to formulate a programme. We will do the opposite - formulate a programme and ask people to sign up to it”. He promises lower taxes and a “slimmed down” bureaucracy.

Mr Veltroni said many politicians in the West had made the transition from mayor or governor to national office. “After all, we deal with the real problems of citizens. Italy is a great country, but needs to rediscover its pride and look to the future.

“We need to invest in innovation, structural reform, schools, jobs, the environment,” he said.

He said his model was Kennedy’s “New Frontier”. “America has always exercised a great moral leadership, though it has lost it under George Bush”. But he also drew inspiration from Mr Blair, who had made a point of phoning him soon after handing over to Gordon Brown.

“Tony and I have a close personal friendship. I disagreed with him over the war in Iraq, but Britain made extraordinary steps forward under his leadership,” he said. Mr Veltroni said he also had “great respect” for Mr Brown, whom he planned to visit in London “as soon as possible”.

A life in politics

— Walter Veltroni was born in 1955. He joined the Italian Communist Party as a teenager

— A journalist, he rose to become editor of L’Unità, a left-wing Italian daily

— Veltroni and Romano Prodi shared power more than a decade ago in Prodi’s first Government. Veltroni worked alongside Prodi as Deputy Prime Minister in 1996 and was also Culture Minister

— Mayor of Rome since 2001

— He credits Robert Kennedy as his political inspiration. Veltroni has published books on music, travel and politics, including a study of Kennedy

Source: Times archives

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