Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi came
under fire on Tuesday over her claim that the large number of
refrigerators abandoned on Rome streets is suspicious.
A representative of public service union FP CGIL for the
Rome and Lazio areas, Natale Di Cola, said the trade union had
filed a complaint in May because the service provided by Rome's
trash collection agency AMA to dispose of large waste was not
active anymore.
"The service to collect large waste has expired and AMA
made a mistake in the procedure for a new tender", said Di Cola.
He added that the service is only partially carried out by
AMA workers who are employed in other capacities.
AMA's toll-free number states that the service has not been
available since June 18.
Members of Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD)
slammed Raggi's statement, made in an interview to La Repubblica
daily, with PD Senator Andrea Marcucci tweeting that nobody had
informed him of the "fridge plot".
Opposition PD Rome councilor Valeria Baglio also said a
public competition to provide the service was launched in
August, as published on AMA's website.
"I am surprised that the mayor talks about a conspiracy and
doesn't know that a tender for bulky rubbish was suspended this
summer because the only participant and winner of the
competition did not have the requirements requested by the law",
Baglio was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post.
The service is reportedly scheduled to resume in December.
In an interview to Rome daily La Repubblica published on
Tuesday, Raggi said the large number of furniture and
refrigerators dumped on Rome's roads was suspicious.
Talking about the trash emergency in Rome and the
reorganization of AMA, the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement
(M5S) mayor told the paper's Editor-in-chief Mario Calabresi
that she had never seen "so much heavy trash, couches,
refrigerators abandoned on the street".
"I don't know if moves are being made, if many people are
renovating their homes, but it is strange..", she noted, adding
that many fridges she saw were "broken and scratched".
The situation over uncollected trash in parts of Rome has
been one the major headaches for Raggi, who was elected the
Italian capital's first woman mayor in June and has struggled to
get her administration off the ground since the vote.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
