(see related) Centre-right Rome mayor candidate Guido Bertolaso has said that Giorgio Meloni, the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, should concentrate on being a mum after ruling out sharing the ticket with her in Rome's local elections in June. Bertolaso's position has been weakened after Northern League leader Matteo Salvini pulled his support for the former civil protection chief. Salvini wants Meloni, who is pregnant, to be the centre-right candidate and she has said she is willing to stand.
"Meloni must do the job of being a mum," Bertolaso told La7 television on Sunday. "It seems to me to be the most beautiful thing that can happen to a woman. She has to handle this chapter of her life. "I don't see why someone should force her to do a ferocious election campaign and take care of holes (in roads) and dirtiness while she is breast feeding".
Meloni said Monday that it was possible to reconcile work with maternity.
"I say to Guido Bertolaso, with courtesy and pride, that I hope to be an excellent mother, like all those women who manage to reconcile professional commitments and maternity amid a thousand difficulties, often in conditions more difficult than mine," she said. Alfio Marchini, an independent candidate to be Rome mayor, said even he would vote for Meloni if Bertolaso repeated the attack. "Another two attacks on the mamma Meloni and I'll vote for her," Marchini, who was briefly touted as a possible candidate behind whom the centre right could unite, said via Twitter. "Countries with higher birth rates? Where there's greater female employment!".
Virginia Raggi, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement's candidate to be Rome mayor, said Monday that it was possible to be a mum and the capital's first citizen. "Of course I can (be mayor and mum), just like all working mothers, I'll bend over backwards," said Raggi, who has a small child. "I'm ready and we are ready to govern Rome. More public transport vehicles, more security, more money for schools. A city that functions is not left-wing or right-wing, it's a 5-Star city". Raggi's comments were echoed by M5S leader Beppe Grillo.
"Spread the word! We are ready to govern Rome!" comedian-turned-politician Grillo said on his Facebook page.
Patrizia Bedori, meanwhile, used Facebook to "get some things off my chest" after quitting as M5S's candidate to be Milan mayor.
She directed her fire at those who called her unemployed and a housewife, stressing that she was not offended by either term. "There are millions of housewives in Italy and thanks to them, your mothers, sisters, wives and partners who every day dedicate themselves to the family and do a long series of jobs that the State fails to so, such as taking care of the elderly, Italy is on its feet," she said.
"As for those who called me unemployed, using this word in a denigratory, negative way, as if to say loser, you should know that I wasn't looking for a cushy seat.
"And I have shown that. But what's more serious is that you have offended millions of people who have had their dignity taken away from them".
Bertolaso also expressed satisfaction on Monday after winning a poll of centre-right supporters last weekend about who should be the mayor candidate. The poll was organised to reinforce Bertolaso's position after Salvini withdrew his support for him. Organizers of the poll said Bertolaso won over 96% of the close to 50,000 votes cast. "More Romans came (to the centre-right poll) than those who went to the primaries of the PD (Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party)," Bertolaso said. "The numbers say so. We were almost at the 50,000 mark".
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