Toninelli sacks expert who disagreed with anti-TAV report

(ANSA) - Rome, July 22 - Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli has sacked an expert who disagreed with the conclusions of a cost/benefit analysis he helped draft on the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail (TAV) line, the ministry said Monday confirming a Messaggero report.
    The cost/benefit report came down against completing the controversial line saying it would mean a net loss of 7-8 billion euros for Italy.
    This bolstered the anti-TAV case of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), of which Toninelli is a prominent member.
    The M5S's government partner the League, on the other hand, dismissed the report and said Italy must go ahead with the TAV.
    Toninelli dismissed cost/benefit analysis commission member Pierluigi Coppola because he allegedly "breached confidentiality rules by giving unauthorised interviews and above all there remains a shadow over him, regarding the fake counter-dossier with wrong numbers on the cost/benefit analysis which was attributed to him by the press and which he denied being the author of, without asking for a correction from the newspapers".
    The centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) and the centre-right opposition Forza Italia (FI) party of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said Coppola had been purged "in a vendetta" and his sacking was "concerning".
    League leader and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said "it seems to me that the Italians have asked for more yeses, and if the one act of Minister Toninelli on the TAV is to sack the only professor in favour, I really don't think it's on." photo: Toninelli