PD gearing up for Rome mayoral primaries

(ANSA) - Rome, November 30 - The center-left Democratic Party (PD) will launch its Rome mayoral campaign come January, party chairman and Rome PD commissioner Matteo Orfini told ANSA on Monday.
    The party led by Premier Matteo Renzi is busy conferring with its local Rome chapters in the run-up to the elections for a new mayor after the PD pressured ex-mayor Ignazio Marino - who ran on a joint PD-Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party ticket and was elected in 2013 with 63.9% of the vote - to step down earlier this year.
    The party will hold coalition primaries for a new mayoral candidate in March, Orfini said.
    "We still need to figure out what that coalition will be," Orfini said. "If we do a good job, we won't need to fear anyone".
    Marino resigned in October under pressure from his own PD party in what supporters say was an orchestrated attack because the mayor prosecuted corrupt officials and angered the Vatican with his stance in favor of gay marriage.
    Among other things, Marino tackled corruption and nepotism in the city's transport and refugee agencies, incensed many by extending pedestrian zones in Rome's historic center and also incurred the wrath of the right by taking strong stands in favor of same-sex marriage and the integration of immigrants.
    The ex-mayor was placed under investigation following a formal report from two opposition parties - the small rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), currently the second-largest party in Italy after Marino's PD.
    Marino could face embezzlement charges if evidence is found to support opposition allegations he spent some 20,000 euros of taxpayers' money on private dinners, a charge he denies.