Rome mayor accused of involvement in 'capital mafia'

MarketRome Mayor Ignazio Marino. (Source: Il Tempo)

According to a VNA correspondent in Italy, the current Mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, was named as one of the city and Lazio region leaders who received bribes from the mafia to help them win bids for basic construction projects in the city.

The Italian press has just published excerpts of the testimony of Salvatore Buzzi, the right-hand man of the "capital mafia" boss Massimo Carminati, that Mayor Marino agreed to award basic construction contracts in the city worth 78 million euros to mafia-controlled businesses.

According to Buzzi, through intermediaries who were officials bribed and manipulated by the mafia, the money was transferred to Mr. Marino and also to the President of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti. However, Mr. Zingaretti denied this accusation in a statement on August 5.

These are the latest developments related to the "capital mafia" scandal that has rocked Italian politics since late last year, when police arrested Carminati - a terrorist believed to be the "godfather" of the "capital mafia" system, Buzzi, along with a series of local officials and businessmen.

Previously, in early June this year, Italian authorities arrested more than 40 people, including seven senior officials of the Rome government, on charges of financial fraud, collusion with the mafia and falsifying bidding results.

The consecutive scandals that have occurred in recent times, along with the Italian and world press simultaneously publishing articles criticizing the Rome government for its incompetence in managing the city, causing it to become polluted, degraded and manipulated by the mafia, have caused the reputation of Mayor Marino and the ruling Democratic Party (Pd) to decline severely.

According to the Italian Parliament's anti-mafia committee, four suburban towns of the capital Rome are at risk of being dissolved due to mafia infiltration.

Faced with this situation, Mr. Marino had to make a series of personnel appointments to replace officials who had been arrested or investigated, while also pledging to continue cleaning up the team and improving Rome's image in the coming time./.

(According to VNA/VN+)