Parma M5S mayor slams Grillo

(ANSA) - Bologna, September 23 - Parma Mayor Federico Pizzarotti of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) took aim at party chief Beppe Grillo on Friday.
    "A guarantor that shows himself to stand by some and not others can guarantee absolutely nothing," said the mayor, who was suspended from the M5S for failing to notify the party that he was under investigation for abuse of office in the appointment of top managers at Parma's Teatro Regio opera house.
    Pizzarotti was subsequently cleared.
    A week ago, M5S bigwig Roberto Fico said it was up to Grillo to decide whether to revoke Pizzarotti's suspension.
    "It's up the guarantor, Grillo, to decide, as always," Fico said, while stressing that Pizzarotti's crime was that he had "hidden" from the M5S the fact that he had been placed under investigation.
    "It wasn't the notice of investigation per se, but the fact that he hid it," said Fico.
    Today, Pizzarotti had more to get off his chest.
    "We're talking about a suspension which - as everyone knows, but pretends not to know - doesn't exist anywhere in the M5S rule book. It was tailor-made," the mayor wrote on Facebook.
    "The few rules we do have aren't respected, while others are clearly invented to get rid of whoever isn't in line," he added.
    "Indifference doesn't belittle its target, but those who enact it. Unlike our party leaders, I can look people in the eye without being ashamed".
    Pizzarotti also said he won't take part in a two-day national M5S event to be held in Palermo at the weekend. "M5S leaders have denied Parma, its city council members and activists permission to set up an information stand as in the past," he wrote.
    "The stand isn't just a tent with four poles, it represents the existence of the M5S in various constituencies," the mayor said.