His decision came after a disagreement over the decision by the party’s leader Elly Schlein to join the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) in an anti-government rally in Rome on Saturday.
“I have communicated my resignation from the PD National Assembly to (President) Stefano Bonaccini,” said D’Amato, who ran unsuccessfully against the centre-right candidate Francesco Rocca for the Lazio governorship in regional elections in February.
“Brigades and balaclavas, absolutely not,” he continued in relation to the rallying cry from M5S founder Beppe Grillo, a former comedian, to supporters to “form citizenship brigades, don your balaclavas and at night, without being seen, do the chores, fix the pavements. React”.
“It was a political mistake to take part in the M5S demonstration. I love you, but I do not identify myself with this political line,” concluded D’Amato.
Grillo’s allusion to Italy’s Red Brigades leftist terror group, which dominated Italy’s Years of Lead of social turmoil and political violence from the late 1960s to the mid ‘80s, has prompted a storm of criticism and led to calls to Schlein to distance herself from the movement.
M5S leader and former prime minister Giuseppe Conte however defended the movement’s founder, saying his words had been “instrumentalised”.
That “newspapers and other political forces are focusing on a formula that has been instrumentalised, that Grillo has used on other occasions, calling for an active citizenship that today is actually being opposed, is a strong signal,” said Conte.
Schlein said Saturday the decision to join the rally against the increasing job insecurity that opposition parties say has been ushered in by a recent government labour package was a “sign of will”.
“We want to join forces on the issues on which the Movement has chosen to mobilise today,” she said.
“There are areas on which we can work together even with our differences.
“One of these is the battle over quality work and the minimum wage, on which the PD, M5S, Greens and Left Alliance (AVS) and even (centrist Carlo) Calenda have made proposals.
“We will continue to work so that on these issues we can be more effective together in opposing what the Meloni government is doing, which increases precariousness and increases the fear of the future that affects young people and women especially in the south of this country,” added Schlein.
ANSA
