Renzi says govt won't be hit by regional votes

(ANSA) - La Spezia, May 25 - Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday that his executive will not be affected by the outcome of local elections in seven Italian regions this weekend. "Nothing changes for the government, absolutely nothing," Renzi told an election rally in the Ligurian city of La Spezia. At the weekend, the premier had said he would consider it a victory if candidates backed by his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) prevail in at least four of the seven regions that are up for grabs - Campania, Liguria, Marche, Puglia, Tuscany, Umbria, and Veneto.
    On Monday his center-right opponent, Silvio Berlusconi, begged to differ.
    "If we were to win four out of three regions, this gentleman's own leftist friends within the PD would send him home," the ex-premier said at a campaign rally for his Forza Italia (FI) candidates in the Umbria town of Assisi.
    Renzi volleyed right back, slamming his predecessor for damaging Italy and saying that "twenty years of center-right (goverments) left rubble" behind. "I have never attacked Berlusconi, but he is the political leader in Italy who was in (the premier's office) for the most days," said Renzi.
    "If he had these great and beautiful ideas for the future of the country, why has he not already carried them out?" The premier went on to hail the government's new anti-corruption law, saying Italy will "restart" and "it will be much easier to invest in the future of our children" if more efforts are made on labor and legality. "After years of arguments and discussions this country finally has a corruption law worthy of the name," the premier said.
    "It finally has false accounting (in the penal code), it has a law against environmental crimes and a much tougher statute of limitations," he said. "A marvelous thing is happening: Italy is again a lead country in the fight against corruption".
    He added that he and his Democratic Party (PD) are human not robots. "We're normal people, we weren't...built in a lab," he said. "We are believers and we want to renew hope - we're trying to do so with all our limitations and we make mistakes, but we always look our peers straight in the eye". "We will give Italy a future," the premier added. In an interview later with Liguria's Primo Canale, the premier reiterated his call for a single union to replace Italy's dozens, along the lines of the German model. "We need to think about ...a union representation law," the premier said. "When you sit in meetings with 17 different unions, you ask yourself is it really necessary to have so many". The Constitution upholds the freedom to unionize without government interference, and also workers' right to participate in company management within limits set by law.