Once-and-possibly-future - though
a distant long shot - Rome mayor Ignazio Marino said Wednesday
he could have wound up in a jail cell if he had followed the
advice of his former Democratic Party (PD), which ultimately
disowned him and ousted him following an expenses scandal last
year.
Meanwhile the current front-runner in the race for a June
election that Marino has yet to formally throw his hat into, the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate Virginia
Raggi, said Rome had to rebuild its social and moral fabric.
"If I had followed all the advice of the PD, maybe they
would have put me in an isolation cell," Marino said at the
presentation of a new book he has written when asked if he had
been isolated politically during his time as mayor.
Elected in 2013, Marino was ousted by the PD, which is led
by Premier Matteo Renzi, after the expenses scandal, the last in
a string of embarrassments for the controversial mayor.
In an interview on Radio Capital Wednesday, Marino denied
using public funds for personal use.
"On the contrary: I used private funds for public use," he
said, adding that Renzi, when he was mayor of Florence, "in a
year spent about 600,000 euros for entertaining, compared to my
12,000".
He said he will discuss possibly running again for Rome
mayor.
If he stands again it will be as a non-PD candidate.
He said his new book, whose title translates as "A Martian
in Rome", could help Rome mayor candidates to develop their
proposals for governing the city.
"Various candidates have said that not only do they not
have a programme, but that they haven't even started writing
one," Marino said.
"This is a book that could provide food for thought for all
those who don't have one".
Marino criticised Renzi and his government on several
issues including funding for the city.
He compared Rome to London and Paris, who he said receive
one billion and two billion euros of funding per year from their
national governments, respectively.
"Here we need investments in the capital, but you have to
love the capital: clearly our head of government doesn't love
Rome," Marino said.
"There's a head of government who hasn't been elected by
anyone: I think ours is the only country of the European
countries that has a head of government that hasn't passed
through the electoral process, who puts a governing commission
in place of a mayor elected by hundreds of thousands of
citizens," he said.
After Marino's ouster, the government appointed former
Milan prefect Francesco Paolo Tronca as Rome commissioner.
"I think this is an injury to democracy that has been taken
into account with much attention and concern by the offices of
all foreign countries," Marino said.
Marino said many of the changes he put into place during
his time as mayor have been subsequently stopped by Renzi.
"Renzi's attitude is irresponsible. On the other hand, he's
allowed to do so because he's a premier that never had even one
vote".
Marino said when he entered office as Rome mayor, "the city
debt was growing by one million euros per day".
"I didn't expect to find this situation," he said.
He said he dedicated a chapter of his book to Pope Francis.
Prior to his ouster, Marino had faced widespread criticism
for flying to Philadelphia to attend the World Meeting of
Families without being invited by the pope, but on Wednesday
Marino said the pope's words had been "manipulated by politics".
"The pope authorised me to tell about our various meetings.
I gathered them in a chapter of my book, the pope read it and he
authorised me to publish it".
Raggi, meanwhile, the M5S candidate who is currently
polling just in front of the PD's Roberto Giachetti, said the
city's "social and moral fabric" must be rebuilt, to create a
"relationship of trust between the administration and citizens".
"Politicians first and foremost have to set a good
example," Raggi told RAINews24.
"Change is possible, although it will take time".
"Rome has been poorly governed by parties for years," she
said.
"It's time to turn the page".
"Rome doesn't need a superhero like Jeeg Robot, but rather
honestly, legality, and competence," she said, citing a recent
article by Rome mayor candidate Roberto Giachetti that referred
to the action hero in an Italian film that has become a surprise
hit.
The former city councillor said her cabinet wouldn't
contain any members of parliament, and there would be "many of
those who have already worked in government over the past two
and a half years, city and municipal councillors".
She said that M5S party leaders wouldn't unduly influence
her governing of the city.
"We have a city to revive, we have a very precise
programme, many ideas and solutions that we've shared, and so
we'll move forward on that".
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