Italy’s centre-left rivals Pier Luigi Bersani and Matteo Renzi faced off on Monday in a game show-style television debate to help decide who will run in next year’s election as candidate to succeed Prime Minister Mario Monti. The debate, before a primary on Nov. 25, comes at a time of exceptional uncertainty in Italian politics, with neither of the traditional big parties clear about who will lead them nor even what electoral law will apply at the ballot box. Bersani, the 61-year-old leader of the Democratic Party, Italy’s largest centre-left force and Renzi, the 37-year-old mayor of Florence who wants to drive out the party’s old guard, are the front-runners in the race to lead the left in the election expected in April. After a genteel encounter which was relatively light on specific policy proposals, it was not immediately clear who made the bigger impact with potential voters. The Democratic Party, which supports Monti’s unelected government, consistently leads in opinion polls but uncertainty about rules governing the election makes it unclear whether that will translate into a parliamentary majority next year. Bersani, the favourite to win the primary, according to most opinion polls, struck a reassuring tone in keeping with his status as the senior figure in the race. “I don’t ask you to like me, I ask you to trust me,” he said.
