Italy's Renzi regains party leadership with big primary win

Matteo Renzi, staging a political comeback less than five months after resigning as Italy's Prime Minister, easily regained the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) on Sunday with an overwhelming victory in a primary election among party supporters.

According to partial results, Renzi, 42, won 72% of the vote, held in makeshift polling booths around the country, leaving two other contenders far behind. Justice Minister Andrea Orlando had 19% while Michele Emiliano, the governor of the southern Puglia region, had about 9%. About 2 million party members voted in the primary.

Renzi resigned as Prime Minister in December after a crushing defeat in a referendum over constitutional reforms aimed at streamlining lawmaking. He was replaced by Paolo Gentiloni, his foreign minister, but he quickly began planning a comeback.

With a national vote due by May 2018, polls show the ruling PD has slipped behind the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which questions the country's euro membership.

However, under Italy's proportional representation voting system, no party currently looks likely to win enough seats in parliament to govern alone.

There is no guarantee that Renzi would be named Prime Minister of a future coalition government even if the PD were to win the most votes during the election.

While Renzi remains the most popular politician among PD voters, the party and his own appeal look much weaker, after he failed to convert his ambitious reform agenda into reality.

Renzi's current personal approval rating is about half of the 50% he posted three years ago, according to the Ixe polling institute.