(ANSA) - Rome, February 16 - Former Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani on Thursday urged PD leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi to "stop" and think "of the country first, and then the party" amid a rift that looks set to spark a full-blown split. Bersani said Renzi should not insist on the "fatal" conclusions of a meeting where a majority petition for an early congress and early elections was forced through.

Bersani is one of the leaders of dissenting minorities within the PD that are insisting on Paolo Gentiloni's PD-led government surviving until the natural end of the legislative term in a year's time. They are also claiming that Renzi is betraying the Social Democratic and Christian Socialist heritage in moving it too far to the centre.

