ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government on Wednesday was forced to call off a plan to make teachers pay back salary increases they got in 2013, after fierce criticism from new centre-left leader Matteo Renzi.
The reversal showed the growing power of Renzi, the 38-year-old mayor of Florence and a member of the same Democratic Party (PD) as Prime Minister Enrico Letta. It also underlined the pressures facing the ruling coalition as it struggles to control Italy's deficit and address a two-year recession.
