Speranza slams Renzi for 'purging' Lacorazza (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, May 10 - MP Roberto Speranza, leader of a leftwing dissenting minority within Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD), on Tuesday accused the premier of "purging" Basilicata Regional Council President Piero Lacorazza, who backed an anti-oil drilling referendum Renzi opposed. Renzi yesterday proposed a "moratorium" on party infighting, pending June local elections and an October referendum on his flagship constitutional reform law. "The first act of Renzi's moratorium... was the purging of (Lacorazza)," Speranza said, calling the move "inconsiderate, illegitimate, and divisive". The Basilicata council replaced Lacorazza with Franco Mollica from the small centrist UdC party, a junior member of the ruling left-right coalition along with Renzi's PD.
    The PD caucus leader in the Basilicata council resigned in protest after Lacorazza's downfall.
    "I remit the mandate to the caucus," tweeted Roberto Cifarelli, who shares Lacorazza and Speranza's political position.
    Supporters of the referendum - which was promoted by nine Adriatic coastal regions and environmentalists - said offshore drilling damages the marine ecosystem on which Italy's tourist and fishing industries depend and that the risk is not worth the reward.
    Renzi and former president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, urged voters to abstain to prevent a quorum being reached. The referendum was a flop.