(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - Outgoing Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino is still weighing whether to withdraw his resignation, sources at the Campidoglio said Wednesday.
Rome city executive met on Wednesday amid speculation that Marino might withdraw his resignation and is another meeting is set to be held on Thursday. "Today we have a very, very important executive meeting, full of decisions," Marino said on arriving at the Campidoglio.
Deputy council speaker Gemma Azuni of the left-wing Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party said she thought Marino would "do well" to withdraw his resignation in order to seek the council's opinion. "It's not possible to leave like that, without having involved the assembly in the slightest. The majority is made up of three groups that have never been heard. It is a question of institutional correctness," Azuni said.
Marino tendered his resignation earlier this month under pressure from his own Democratic Party (PD) in the wake of allegations concerning his hospitality expenses. However he has until November 2 to reconsider, at which point his resignation will become effective.
The leader of the Democratic Party (PD) in Rome, Matteo Orfini, spoke up Wednesday in support of his PD colleague Fabrizio Barca, who had expressed concern over the party's progress in the capital in light of the Marino case.
"Fabrizio, the process of renewal and rebuilding Rome's PD won't stop because of manipulative opportunists. In these months we've fought a lot together and together we'll continue to change Rome's PD," Orfini wrote on his Facebook page, attaching an interview Barca conducted with Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano that was republished on PD's website.
In that interview, Barca said, "Marino's resignation has hit us at the most difficult point, halfway, before the rebuilding (of the party). I'm very concerned that the process of change will stop and go backwards".
Referring to Marino, Barca said, "You can't say in public, 'I'll give the money back.' A poor man who steals three kilos of pears in the market, can he give them back as if nothing happened? Too many mistakes, in the end he (Marino) was no longer defensible".