Four candidates are fighting for Rome's mayor's office. How the wild boars came to decide the fate of the elections
Rome is an ungovernable city and no one wants to be its mayor. This phrase is repeated in Italian politics, because the country’s capital has been facing problems for decades that no administration has been able to solve. The city is also a huge black hole for the Italian economy. Therefore, the Italian parties are running in the municipal elections on Sunday and Monday with politicians from the second echelon, which should not affect their image too much, according to an EFE analysis.
With the exception of the current mayor , Virginia Raggi, who is running for the anti-system party The 5 Star Movement (M5S), the other candidates are little known to the people of Rome. Roberto Gualtieri, former Minister of Economy, who is running for the Democratic Party (PD) on behalf of the progressive political party; Enrico Michetti, a lawyer by profession who is running for the far-right Fratelli d’Italia and the independent Carlo Calenda, former Minister of Development during the Matteo Renzi government, are among the contenders for the mayoral seat of Rome, Agerpres reports.
Campaign election posters for the municipal elections in Rome. Photo source: Profimedia Images
Wild boars parade through the streets of Rome
According to The Guardian , Mayor Virginia Raggi is accused by her opponents of doing nothing to chase wild boars from the streets of the capital. In reply, she stated that the animals came from outside the city, from the Lazio region, managed by her political opponents.
„ My detractors continue to use photos and videos with wild boars around Rome, passing all responsibility to me. If a lady is chased by a wild boar in Formello, a small town north of Rome, the next day the newspapers write that I am to blame ” , said Virginia Rays.
In the images broadcast on social networks, wild boars walk freely among the cars on the streets of Rome, but also near a school, where parents were waiting for the students to leave.
The boar invasion could be fatal for Raggi mayoralty. Lately, the “visits” of wild boars to Rome are no longer unusual. In May, on leaving a store,
A woman was attacked by a herd of wild boars and escaped after throwing away all the food they bought. The animals were also photographed near Italy’s Foreign Ministry, while some residents said they were chased by the wild boar while carrying the garbage.
In fact, in October last year, the mayor of Rome ordered an investigation after some wild boars that frequented the city
were shot and killed by police in a children’s playground near the Vatican. The event sparked protests from animal rights activists and locals.
The ANSA agency pointed out that , in the last year, wild boars in Rome killed a 16-year-old teenager and injured another 215 people.
Elections of the election campaign
On the last hundred meters, the candidates started to promise a lot things. Gualtieri pledged to do an “extraordinary clean-up” of Rome, while Carlo Calenda, the candidate of the Azione party, promised to spend 38 million euros “on cleaning the sidewalks, removing graffiti from the walls, unclogging drains and sanitizing areas.” garbage collection ”.
”(capital of the world) must be restored. He also said that the Roman salute, which has fascist connotations, should be revived because it is more hygienic in Covid-19 times.
In the his book, Rome the courage to change (Rome, the courage of change), the writer Claudio Cipollini
analyzed the promises made in the election campaigns
of the last five mayors of Rome, including the promises of the current mayor Raggi, and compared them with what has been achieved and what has not “ We found that what they said during the election campaigns did not correspond to what they actually did,” Cipollini said. Cipollini also studied the electoral programs of the current candidates to the position of mayor, and then published the conclusions.
„ The political programs of the four candidates contain some good ideas for Rome, but no one has said when and how they will deliver on their promises, “said Cipollini, who added that” some issues have been treated better by some and poorly by others. ” Cipollini also stated that the main problem is “the inability of the public administration to manage a modern city”.
The four candidates for the mayor of Rome, Michetti, Gualtieri, Raggi and Calenda, participating in an electoral debate in front of the citizens Photo source: Profimedia Images
„ Roma kaputt ”
In his book „ Roma Kaputt ”, Marco Bettini, journalist and writer who for a year held the position of head of the press office of the former mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, explains the mechanisms that make Italy’s capital ungovernable.
„ Is it possible to manage Rome well? Not. Because it is just as impossible to manage Italy well. In the capital, this reality is tangible because, beyond the fact that we are talking about a city with a geography, an area, an enormous institutional and bureaucratic structure, we also have some absurd rules that condition the life of municipalities, regions and local authorities. It is ungovernable even for a well-meaning politician ”, says Bettini.
In the last elections in 2016, the M5S party recorded a resounding triumph, winning the mayoralty of Rome through Virginia Raggi, a young lawyer, with little political experience and innovative ideas, which suggested that the break with the old policy would give a new impetus to the capital.
Raggi Mayor against all
But Raggi, 43, was just one of many disappointments for many. Even M5S has been divided over its decision to run for a second term as mayor, but in the run-up to elections it no longer hopes to win, a politician already considered a loser is an acceptable candidate.
The unsuccessful administration of garbage collection, the most visible and unpleasant problem in Rome, is inexorably hovering over her candidacy and , if in 2016 it won from the first round with 35% of the votes and in the second with 67%, now in opinion polls it is credited with only 19% of the voting intentions, lagging behind the PD and the right-wing coalition of Northern League , Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi.
The current mayor of Rome , Virginia R aggi. Photo source: Profimedia Images
Raggi defends himself by insisting that he reformed AMA, the company that manages waste in Rome, but also that he modernized public transport in the city. But what many do not see, but could bring him an electoral boost at the end of the campaign, is the investments he has made in
„city outskirts“. Mayor Virginia Raggi paid attention to working-class neighborhoods, with the community in those areas now seeing her as a heroine to the people in those areas.
Politicians in the second echelon and an independent candidate
Roberto Gualtieri, former Minister of Economy, who is running for the Democratic Party from the progressive political party. Photo source: Profimedia Images
() After several refusals, the right-wing coalition of Northern League , Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia found a politician willing to sacrifice himself: Enrico Michetti, an anonymous lawyer and university professor who is part of the Fratelli d’Italia party. He stood out in the campaign with controversial statements about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enrico Michetti, the candidate of the right-wing coalition of the Northern League , Fratelli d’Italia and Forza Italia. Photo source: Profimedia Images
The fourth candidate for mayor of Rome is Carlo Calenda, 48, a former minister in Matteo Renzi’s government. He ran with his slogan “ elect a mayor, not a party ” and had a different approach in the election campaign. Although he is not expected to get more than 15% of the vote, his support for one candidate or another could prove decisive in the second round.
Candi given the independent Carlo Calenda. Photo source: Profimedia Images
According to the latest polls, the right-wing coalition candidate, Enrico Michetti, is in the lead with 36% of the voting intentions, followed by Roberto Gualtieri with 28.5% , which would get 53% of the vote in a hypothetical second round.
() The second round will decide the new mayor of Rome
All political calculations indicate that a second round will take place that will test the coalition between PD and M5S at the national level. Although they ran separately in the municipal elections, and were even at war in Rome, the two parties were allies in government, and in the next elections this union will be vital to stop the rise of the right.
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