Interior Minister Angelino
Alfano has given Rome Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro extra powers to
assess activities of the capital city's council in relation to
alleged mafia infiltration there, sources said Tuesday.
The announcement comes amid a major police investigation
into mafia activities allegedly reaching to high levels in Rome.
Earlier on Tuesday, Premier Matteo Renzi said he would "not
leave Rome in the hands of thieves" as the political world
continued to feel the aftershocks of the probe prosecutors
revealed last week.
Over 100 people have been placed under investigation in the
probe including former Rome center-right mayor Gianni Alemanno.
The mafia organisation, allegedly run by ex-right-wing
terrorist and gangster Massimo Carminati, allegedly managed to
rig city of Rome contracts worth many millions of euros.
Speaking to young supporters of his Democratic Party (PD),
Renzi expressed his hope that the judiciary would "conduct rapid
trials" and that the culprits "would pay to the last cent and to
the last day".
Renzi also reaffirmed his commitment to weeding out rotten
apples from his own party after it emerged that some PD members
were implicated in the scandal.
Mayor Ignazio Marino of the PD has, however, emerged
unscathed by investigations so far.
"We will not allow anyone in the PD to call into question
what we are and what we have achieved," Renzi said.
"We will stay clean because Rome is too great and too
beautiful to be left to scum out there," concluded the premier.
The job of cleaning up the PD has been tasked to national
President Matteo Orfini, who was put in charge of the Rome
branch of the party after news of the probe broke.
Orfini said Tuesday that it was up to Mayor Ignazio Marino
to decide whether to reshuffle the city executive.
"The mayor makes the executive and he does what he thinks
is right," Orfini told reporters before a meeting with Marino.
"That's OK for us".
On Monday, Marino said Pope Francis was praying for the
city.
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