Civic list candidate for Rome mayor
Alfio Marchini on Wednesday said 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate
Virginia Raggi lives in an "abstract world like Snow White" and
questioned her capacity to govern the city.
"Rome isn't a fairytale but rather a concrete reality and
it gives me chills to think of her with the disaster that is
this city," Marchini said.
He was responding to a recent online gaffe in which Raggi
responded to a satirical Facebook page called Arfio Marchini in
a thread within which former Rome mayoral candidate Guido
Bertolaso, who now backs Marchini, also commented.
Marchini said he is considering Bertolaso for heading up a
crisis centre that would cover Rome and the metropolitan area.
"We've spoken about it today as well and we'll do it so
that it's present above all in the most difficult areas,"
Marchini told Sky TG24.
Meanwhile, rightwing Northern League leader Matteo Salvini
predicted that the run-off for Rome mayor would come down to the
candidate supported by his party, Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader
Giorgia Meloni, and Raggi.
"Therefore you should ask the PD and Berlusconi who they'll
support," Salvini told the Foreign Press Association in Rome on
Wednesday, referring to Italian Premier Renzi's Democratic Party
(PD) and former premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, which
backs Marchini.
Centre-left PD candidate Roberto Giachetti questioned
Raggi's plan for handling the city's debt during a television
appearance on La7 channel.
"I agree on the fact that we need to open talks with the
government to renegotiate the (city's) debt, but first we need
to put our accounts in order," he said.
"Everyone says we need to save, but how does Raggi intend
to do so?" Giachetti asked.
On Tuesday, Raggi called on leftists to quit supporting PD,
and said her opponents in the mayoral race are "the system, not
the alternative".
Two polls commissioned by the RAI show Porta a Porta
released on Monday show Raggi in the lead with estimates of
28.5% in a poll conducted by pollster Tecné and 25% by pollster
IPR.
In those polls, Meloni and Marchini were tied at 20% with
Giachetti at 19.5% (IPR); Tecné showed Giachetti at 20.5%,
Meloni at 20%, and Marchini at 19.5%.
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