(see related)Opposition
politicians on Friday blasted Premier Matteo Renzi and former
president Giorgio Napolitano for urging voters to abstain from
Sunday's referendum on offshore drilling.
Deputy Lower House Speaker Luigi Di Maio from the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) said Napolitano's call
for abstention is "scandalous in a country where we're already
having enormous problems with voters abstaining...I'm going to
vote and I'm voting 'yes'," he said.
A yes vote on the April 17 referendum would strike down an
option to renew existing 30-year concessions for offshore oil
and gas prospecting and drilling in Italy's Adriatic Sea.
The Lower House whip for Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia
(FI) party, Renato Brunetta, accused Renzi and Napolitano of
"attacking the Constitution", which says "voting is a civic
duty".
Puglia Governor Michele Emiliano - who is from Renzi's
Democratic Party (PD) - tweeted that encouraging abstention is
"a violation of the Constitution".
Genoa Mayor Marco Doria from the Left Ecology Freedom (SEL)
party said Renzi government purposely wasted taxpayer money by
not including the referendum in June local elections for the
sole purpose of "undermining participation" and voter turnout.
Monsignor Giancarlo Maria Bregantini, the Catholic
archbishop of Campobasso-Bojano in the Abruzzo and Molise
regions, told La Repubblica daily paper that he will vote "yes"
and that he hopes authorities will promote "a more
environmentally respectful lifestyle with the use of renewable
energies".
Renzi wrote in his online newsletter Thursday that
abstaining from the referendum is "constitutionally legitimate".
Renzi has berated the referendum promoters - led by
Greenpeace environmentalist group and local administrations -
for wanting to "shut down working plants, losing 11,000 jobs and
increasing fuel imports from Arab countries or Russia".
Supporters of the referendum - which was promoted by nine
Adriatic coastal regions and environmentalists - say offshore
drilling damages to the marine ecosystem on which Italy's
tourist and fishing industries depend and that the risk is not
worth the reward.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
