ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court cleared a left-wing party chief of abuse of power on Wednesday, freeing him to run as a candidate in the primary to pick a centre-left candidate for prime minister in next year's national election.
Nichi Vendola, head of the Left, Ecology and Freedom party, will now contest two other candidates to lead a centre-left coalition that will bid to take power when the current technocrat government of Mario Monti ends its mandate in spring.
According to the most recent opinion poll 42.5 percent of Italians would vote for the centre-left coalition, far ahead of nearest rivals the centre-right with 26.5 percent.
Vendola had said he would quit politics if found guilty.
"I am very happy," Vendola said tearfully after the judgment was announced. "I have had to swallow a bitter pill these last months. If I had been convicted I wouldn't have been able to continue my public life."
Prosecutors had asked for a 20-year sentence in the case, in which he was accused of improperly favouring the appointment of the head of department in a large hospital in the capital of the Puglia region, where he is governor.
A fierce critic of Monti, Vendola says if the centre-left wins elections Italy should abandon an agenda of spending cuts and reforms imposed to pull it from the brink of a debt crisis, arguing it targets ordinary people and is deepening Italy's recession.
He will face two rivals from the Democratic Party in primaries for the centre-left leadership, the group's leader Pier Luigi Bersani and his younger challenger, 37-year old Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi.
Being targeted by prosecutors is relatively commonplace for Italian politicians and many shrug off investigations as no more than an occupational hazard, which rarely results in a jail sentence actually being served.
(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary, Editing by William Maclean)
