Center-left Mayor Ignazio
Marino said Wednesday that the criminal mindset behind the
racketeering mob uncovered in an ongoing probe in the nation's
capital hails from the right wing of the political spectrum.
Over 100 people have been placed under investigation in
the mafia probe including former center-right mayor Gianni
Alemanno.
Alemanno is currently in the rightwing Brothers of Italy
(FdI) party, a splinter from the conservative People of Freedom
(PdL) party of former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The Rome crime syndicate was allegedly run by former
rightwing terrorist and gangster Massimo Carminati, and
allegedly rigged Rome city contracts worth many millions of
euros in sectors ranging from waste disposal to the management
of migrant reception centres and Roma camps.
Many of the people incriminated in the probe are linked
to Alemanno.
Several figures from the Democratic Party (PD) of Premier
Matteo Renzi feature too, although Marino, who is also in the
PD, is unscathed so far.
"Some in our party may have erred, but the criminal
structure was born within Alemanno's right wing," the mayor told
a Democratic Party (PD) gathering.
PD President Matteo Orfini, who has been put in charge of
the party in Rome following the probe, said the local branch has
been held hostage to internal "power wars" for years.
He said that his stint as commissioner of the Rome PD will
not be short, as it will be necessary to "rebuild" the party in
the city.
"The PD must go back to the streets, it must return to the
people without fear," Orfini said Wednesday.
"The Rome PD has been marked by an endless war between
bands that organized not for the sake of politics but for that
of power," Orfini went on.
"Such a party took hostage thousands of militants,
card-carrying members and voters, who worked with passion and
commitment on a daily basis to build a party worthy of this
name".
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