Rome mayor faces double reckoning

Alvise Armellini -

Since the decline of its ancient empire, Rome has not exactly been a model of good governance. But in recent years, the Italian capital has, in the eyes of many of its residents, slid into utter chaos.

The average Roman “sees run-down streets, garbage everywhere, crazy traffic, buses that never arrive, gardens and parks in a state of abandon,” reads a recent post on “Roma fa schifo” (Rome sucks), an influential civic campaign blog.

In the past few months alone, about 20 city buses have gone up in flames, trees have crashed down onto cars and buildings during storms, a metro escalator collapsed and injured more than 20 people, and metres-deep craters have opened up in residential streets.

The city has also become a hunting ground for wildlife attracted by uncollected rubbish, including giant seagulls that like to snatch sandwiches from tourists and wild boar spotted roaming the streets at night.

All this has happened under the watch of Mayor Virginia Raggi of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

Elected by a landslide in 2016 on a “clean politics” ticket after a major graft scandal discredited politicians from previous ruling parties, Raggi has since become embroiled in a similar scandal herself, over a suspected cronyism case.

A court is to rule on Saturday on whether Raggi lied when she said that her former head of personnel, Raffaele Marra, did not influence her decision to promote Marra’s brother Renato to a senior council position.

If convicted, the mayor would be expected to resign — at least according to the M5S ethics code. But there is speculation that Raggi could decide to soldier on to avoid snap elections in which her party might face defeat.

On November 2, Raggi told La7 television she was “very relaxed” about the looming judgement, reported that “many” Romans were telling her to keep going, and ruled out early mayoral elections. “In the meantime we continue to work,” she said.

Not everybody is thrilled at the prospect.

“We think that the mayor is just not up to it, and her administration has proven totally incompetent,” Francesca Barzini, one of the organisers of “Roma dice Basta” (Rome says Enough), a recent protest event that attracted several thousands, said.

On October 27, people rallied outside the mayor’s office on the Michelangelo-designed Capitol Square holding banners with slogans such as “The Great Rubbish Dump,” a play on the title of the Rome-set 2014 Oscar-winning film “The Great Beauty.”

Raggi slagged off the protesters as out-of-touch lefties or “pseudo intellectuals who have never taken a bus in their life” and said she has spent the last two years “giving all of herself, day and night, to try to fix a devastated city.”

She faces an uphill task.

Just by way of example, consumer association Codacons estimated in June that Rome has 60,000 potholes; and local public transport company ATAC is undergoing bankruptcy procedures after racking up nearly 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in debt.

On Sunday, a day after Raggi’s court ruling, Romans are being asked to vote in a referendum that could also pose a threat for the mayor. It is about the liberalization of bus and metro services, at the expense of ATAC’s monopoly.

The mayor opposes the ballot because she wants to keep public services in public hands, while referendum backers suggest that outside players might be able to improve on ATAC’s dismal service record.

The expectation is that the referendum will fail due to a low turnout, but even that will not take the heat off Raggi.

She has also recently come under attack from Interior Minister and far-right leader Matteo Salvini, whose League party leads the national government with the M5S. He jumped on the recent rape and murder of a teenage girl in central Rome to denounce the city’s security “black holes,” in a move seen as the start of a campaign against the incumbent mayor.

“I am not condemning anyone [for Rome’s law and order problems] but I say that who serves as mayor is objectively responsible for the situation,” Public Administration Minister Giulia Bongiorno, a Salvini ally, told La Stampa newspaper two weeks ago.

Conquering the Rome mayoralty would cement Salvini’s position as Italy’s most popular politician. — dpa