Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi has
admitted her administration made a poor start while adding that
she was turning things around and had the support of her
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and leader Beppe
Grillo.
Raggi is under investigation over an appointment.
The case of life-insurance policies taken out by her former
cabinet chief in which she is the beneficiary also hit the
headlines, although prosecutors have ruled out any wrongdoing by
the mayor over the latter.
"The start was wrong. But today we can say that we have
opened a new phase," Raggi said in an interview published in
Monday's Corriere della Sera, adding that relations with Grillo
were "excellent".
"The story of the policy was inflated on purpose by the
newspapers to discredit me via an outrageous operation".
The former cabinet chief, Salvatore Romeo, on Monday denied
that there were political motives behind the life-insurance
policies.
Romeo told State broadcaster RAI that the policies were "not
excessively risky, quit remunerative forms of investment".
The M5S is vying with the ruling centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) to be Italy's top party and Raggi's tenure at the Rome helm
has been widely seen as a test for its ability to govern Italy.
The movement prides itself on being fee from the corruption
it says has tainted all other parties.
Raggi has had a string of appointments woes and has been
accused of failing to get to grips with the government of the
Italian capital.
Critics say probes against two of her former appointees show
the M5S is not as virtuous as it claims.
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