Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi from
the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and members of her
council are facing criticism from M5S followers on the blog of
the movement's founder Beppe Grillo after a councillor revealed
she was under investigation for suspected unauthorised waste
management.
Environment councillor Paola Muraro told the parliamentary
waste-linked environmental crime (Ecomafie) commission Monday
she had found out at the end of July that she was under
investigation for events that took place during her 12 years as
consultant for municipal waste company AMA.
Raggi, who said she found out about the investigation on
July 19, told the panel she and the M5S would take any measures
against Muraro "as soon as we get more information"
A video message posted by Raggi on Grillo's blog has
attracted several critical responses, with many saying that the
revelation about Muraro is damaging the M5S's reputation.
"I'm really sorry to say it but the issue in Rome is
messing up all the M5S. What can we do? For me above all Muraro
needs to go and then Raggi needs to apologise," said Demetrio
from Florence.
Fabrizio D from Rome wrote "the Muraro/Raggi affair is
threatening the entire project of the Movement, that originally
desired by (late co-founder) Gianroberto Casaleggio and (founder
and comedian) Beppe Grillo. Transparency, legality, direct
democracy, involvement of the Web, none of that has been done in
this embarrassing affair".
Others however supported Raggi and urged her to remain
strong in the face of opposition, with one commentator saying
"Rome will be our Stalingrad: resist, resist, resist!".
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