Parma Mayor Federico
Pizzarotti of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) took
aim at party chief Beppe Grillo on Friday.
"A guarantor that shows himself to stand by some and not
others can guarantee absolutely nothing," said the mayor, who
was suspended from the M5S for failing to notify the party that
he was under investigation for abuse of office in the
appointment of top managers at Parma's Teatro Regio opera house.
Pizzarotti was subsequently cleared.
A week ago, M5S bigwig Roberto Fico said it was up to
Grillo to decide whether to revoke Pizzarotti's suspension.
"It's up the guarantor, Grillo, to decide, as always," Fico
said, while stressing that Pizzarotti's crime was that he had
"hidden" from the M5S the fact that he had been placed under
investigation.
"It wasn't the notice of investigation per se, but the fact
that he hid it," said Fico.
Today, Pizzarotti had more to get off his chest.
"We're talking about a suspension which - as everyone
knows, but pretends not to know - doesn't exist anywhere in the
M5S rule book. It was tailor-made," the mayor wrote on Facebook.
"The few rules we do have aren't respected, while others
are clearly invented to get rid of whoever isn't in line," he
added.
"Indifference doesn't belittle its target, but those who
enact it. Unlike our party leaders, I can look people in the eye
without being ashamed".
Pizzarotti also said he won't take part in a two-day
national M5S event to be held in Palermo at the weekend.
"M5S leaders have denied Parma, its city council members
and activists permission to set up an information stand as in
the past," he wrote.
"The stand isn't just a tent with four poles, it represents
the existence of the M5S in various constituencies," the mayor
said.
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