M5S's Taverna slams opponents

(ANSA) - Rome, February 16 - Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement Senator Paola Taverna on Tuesday slammed two competing candidates for Rome mayoral primaries as "diabolical choices".
    She said deputy Lower House Speaker Roberto Giachetti of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) would run for mayor while hanging on to his MP seat and that center-right Guido Bertolaso "has more investigations against him than medals".
    A former civil protection agency chief, Bertolaso in January told centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party leader Silvio Berlusconi he's "available" to run for Rome mayor.
    Giachetti for his part said he is "dying to be mayor" of Rome and that he would "not underestimate" opponents such as Bertolaso. Fellow PD primary candidate Roberto Morassut, the former Rome executive councillor for urban planning under the center-left Veltroni administration, tried to differentiate himself from the competition, saying the reformist leftist identifies more with him than with Giachetti.