The Democratic Party (PD) is
suing Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi of the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) for defamation for remarks in which she linked
Premier Matteo Renzi's center-left party to Mafia Capitale, a
ring of gangsters, businessmen and politicians that muscled in
on lucrative Rome city contracts.
"The practice of insults and lies on the part of M5S
representatives has been ongoing for a while," said PD Treasurer
Francesco Bonifazi.
"Political debate is one thing, defamation quite another,"
he said.
The announcement came after Raggi tweeted Sunday that
unlike Renzi's party, the M5S was never in business with the
Capital Mafia crime ring.
"We're not the PD after all. The people of Rome know they
(the PD) created that system (Capital Mafia). We fight it,"
Raggi tweeted, adding a picture of a giant octopus symbolizing
the mafia hovering over Rome.
after Renzi took aim at he called "the M5S's double moral
standards".
"Raggi put trash management in the hands of a woman who is
totally linked to Capital Mafia," he said on Sunday in reference
to the Rome cabinet member for the environment, Paola Muraro,
who is under investigation for alleged misconduct during her
12-year tenure as a highly-paid consultant at Rome's AMA trash
company.
Renzi argued this shows that the M5S was not the break from
the past it claims to be.
Earlier on Monday, Muraro said through her lawyer that she
is suing the premier for linking her name to the Capital Mafia
case.
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