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Rome’s ‘decay’ prompts council reshuffle

Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said he would reshuffle his council executive amid mounting pressure - from home and abroad - over the Italian capital's decay.

Rome's 'decay' prompts council reshuffle
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino is reshuffling his council over the city's 'decay'.Photo: Fabrizio Lonzini

From rats scurrying around the Trevi Fountain and chronic transport problems to rubbish-strewn streets and corruption, the capital’s decline has reached boiling point for its dwellers – and an embarrassing level for the Eternal City’s leaders.

The Italian media has lamented Rome’s troubles for some time, but a series of high-profile setbacks, plus an article in The New York Times last Wednesday about the ancient city’s “degradation”, has pushed Marino into action.

On Friday, he said he would “fix” the city’s dysfunctional transport system, including changing the board of directors at Atac, the company responsible for public transport, and firing those “responsible for the inefficiencies”.

The announcement came a day after a crowded metro train drove between two stops with the doors wide open, and a week after a five-year-old boy was killed when he fell into a lift shaft at a Rome metro station.

Now Marino said he would reshuffle his executive council on Tuesday, including asking Giudio Improta, his transportation councillor, to step down, Ansa reported.

“An immediate change of direction is needed,” Ignazio said.

Residents have faced persistent transport misery in recent weeks, with impromptu strikes and roadworks disrupting bus and tram services.

Meanwhile, the metro’s Line A has been stopping at 9.30pm each night since May due to maintenance work and there's been major disruption at Fiumicino airport since a fire at terminal three, which handles international flights, in early May.

“The heat makes all the problems – the rubbish, the transport – a lot worse,” Manuella, a Rome resident who depends on the metro and buses to get to work, told The Local.

“Tempers are more frayed – but this decline has been going on for years and, with all our worries over the economy, it's reached boiling point.” 

Valeria Fedeli, the Senate’s deputy speaker, said Marino was running out of time to take serious measures to clean-up the city.

“It is unclear why the Italian capital can’t be as clean as other European capitals,” Fedeli, a member of Marino's centre-left Democratic Party, was quoted by Ansa as saying.

“Marino has 24 hours to present a team and decide the programme quickly to solve Rome's problems.”

Marino, who was elected in 2013, has also been hit by the fall-out of the so-called 'Mafia capital' corruption scandal.

Giorgio, who grew up in the capital, said that while the city is “badly managed” and people at the top need to change, so does the mindset among residents.

“The problem with Romans, is that they only give something back if they receive it,” he told The Local.

“Yes, the politics and management are a shambles – but people living here also need to contribute to make it better.

“All the time you see dog owners leaving their pet's excrement on the street, or people throwing cigarette ends on the street. People need to care more – only then will things start to change.”

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PROTESTS

Thousands protest in Rome against fascist groups after green pass riots

An estimated 200,000 people descended on Rome on Saturday to call for a ban on fascist-inspired groups, after protests over Italy's health pass system last weekend degenerated into riots.

A general view shows people attending an anti-fascist rally called by Italian Labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome
People attend an anti-fascist rally called by Italian Labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome on October 16th, 2021. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Carrying placards reading “Fascism: Never Again”, the protesters in Piazza San Giovanni — a square historically associated with the left — called for a ban on openly neofascist group Forza Nuova (FN).

FN leaders were among those arrested after the Rome headquarters of the CGIL trade union — Italy’s oldest — was stormed on October 9th during clashes outside parliament and in the historic centre.

Analysis: What’s behind Italy’s anti-vax protests and neo-fascist violence?

A man holds a placard reading "yes to the vaccine" during an anti-fascist rally at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome

A man holds a placard reading “yes to the vaccine” during an anti-fascist rally at Piazza San Giovanni in Rome on October 16th, 2021. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

“This is not just a retort to fascist ‘squadrismo’,” CGIL secretary general Maurizio Landini said, using a word used to refer to the fascist militias that began operating after World War I.

IN PICTURES: Demonstrators and far right clash with police in Rome after green pass protest

“This piazza also represents all those in Italy who want to change the country, who want to close the door on political violence,” he told the gathered crowds.

Last weekend’s riots followed a peaceful protest against the extension to all workplaces of Italy’s “Green Pass”, which shows proof of vaccination, a negative Covid-19 test or recent recovery from the virus.

The violence has focused attention on the country’s fascist legacy.

Saturday’s demonstration was attended by some 200,000 people, said organisers, with 800 coaches and 10 trains laid on to bring people to the capital for the event.

Workers from the Italian Labour Union (UIL) react during an anti-fascist rally in Rome

Workers from the Italian Labour Union (UIL) react during an anti-fascist rally in Rome on October 16th, 2021. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

It coincided with the 78th anniversary of the Nazi raid on the Jewish Ghetto in Rome.

Over 1,000 Jews, including 200 children, were rounded up at dawn on October 16th, 1943, and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

General Secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Maurizio Landini (C) delivers a speech as Italian priest Don Luigi Ciotti (R) looks on

General Secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Maurizio Landini (C) delivers a speech as Italian priest Don Luigi Ciotti (R) looks on during the anti-fascist rally in Rome. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

“Neofascist groups have to be shut down, right now. But that has to be just the start: we need an antifascist education in schools,” university student Margherita Sardi told AFP.

READ ALSO: Covid green pass: How are people in Italy reacting to the new law for workplaces?

The centre-left Democratic Party, which has led the calls for FN to be banned, said its petition calling on parliament to do so had gathered 100,000 signatures.

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