Italy`s Struggling Opposition Elects New Leader

Franceschini`s main task will be to regroup the centre-left opposition torn apart by squabbling and corruption scandals.

Italy's weakened centre-left opposition elected a new leader to replace Walter Veltroni on Saturday after a regional election defeat to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party prompted him to step down.

Dario Franceschini, 50, who had been Veltroni's second-in-command, takes over as head of the Democratic Party at a time when the opposition bloc is in tatters and Berlusconi retains a firm grip on power despite a recession.

Party delegates elected Franceschini with 1,047 votes out of 1,258. The only other candidate, former Defence Minister Arturo Parisi, received 92 votes.

"Optimism has returned, trust has returned and the will to fight has returned," Franceschini told party delegates after being elected.

Franceschini's main task will be to regroup the centre-left opposition torn apart by squabbling and corruption scandals.

Veltroni, who led the Democratic Party since it was created in 2007 and lost the national elections last year to Berlusconi, resigned as chief this week after the centre-left's humiliating defeat in elections for governor in Sardinia.

Franceschini got his start in politics in 1974 within the Christian Democrats, later joining the centrist Daisy party that was merged with the Democrats of the Left to create the Democratic Party.