5-Star Movement (M5S) premier
candidate Luigi Di Maio said Friday that if reports about M5S
Senate candidate Emanuele Dessi' are true, he will not be able
to stay with the anti-establishment group.
"I am the political leader of the movement and it's my duty
to protect it," Di Maio said.
"We started all the checks this morning. If what's emerging
is true, we'll have no problem saying that these people cannot
be in the movement. So give us time to run the checks".
Earlier on Friday M5S lawmaker and candidate to be Lazio
governor Roberta Lombardi called on Dessi' to explain how come
he only pays rent of seven euros a month on his council
apartment.
Dessi' has also been under fire from the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) over a photo that seems to show him
dancing with a member of the Spada crime family in the Roman
coastal district of Ostia, but Lombardi dismissed these charges.
"The attempt by the PD and some newspapers to link our Senate
candidate Emanuele Dessi' to the Spadas or call him a thug is
miserable," Lombardi said on Facebook.
"On the other hand, I think that there is something that the
M5S candidate must absolutely clarify - his house, the
seven-euro rent.
"Elements of opacity are emerging that the M5S cannot accept.
As far as I'm concerned, transparency is worth more than
anything else".
Frascati town council said Friday that Dessì got the council
flat according to the rules.
"The allocation of the house to Emanuele Dessì was regular
and (payment) does not appear to be in arrears," it said.
"For completeness of information, Dessì himself proposed
rasing the monthly rent but that was not possible because the
rent is linked to declared income," it said.
Dessì said he had "tried to pay 200 euros but they told me
no".
He said the house had come down to him from the war, when "my
family lost everything" and that "I didn't steal anything".
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