Renzi says Italy must change, launching 1,000-day plan

Premier urges Italians to choose 'courage, not fear'

(ANSA) - Rome, September 1 - Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday that Italians must "choose courage, not fear" and accept his "radical" and fundamental changes to the country's institutions. Renzi said his reform plans would free the country from excessive bureaucracy and finally bring about long-promised changes. "We must go on the attack, not the defence," he said shortly before he was expected to outline his 1,000-day reform plan.

He added that Italy cannot "hold back" or allow itself to remain in the thrall of special interests, and all sectors of the country must be ready to change. The country must prove that it can reform, with no exceptions for sectors or programs that may have been thought exempt in the past, Renzi said in a post on the website for his 1,000-day program of change. "At the end of this period, we will have a country more courageous, more simple, more competitive. And then, more credible policies," said Renzi. After a cabinet meeting last Friday, the premier announced a series of reforms aimed at boosting economic growth including changes to streamline civil justice processes and major investments in infrastructure projects including roads and railways. The reforms come as Italy remains mired in its third recession in six years.