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Italy’s Five Star Movement takes control of former mafia town Ostia

Italy's populist Five Star Movement has won a local election in Ostia, a seaside suburb of Rome once ruled by organized crime.

Published: 20 November 2017 11:46 CET
Italy’s Five Star Movement takes control of former mafia town Ostia
A view of Ostia Lido. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

The vote was the first in Ostia since police dissolved the district’s government two years ago due to its infiltration by the mafia, the first time such a step had been taken in Rome. It was also closely watched as a barometer of public sentiment ahead of a national election that must be held next spring.

A first round of voting on November 5th left the Five Star Movement going head to head with the centre-right coalition Brothers of Italy, with the ruling Democratic Party failing to make the run-off.

The Five Star Movement won just under 60 percent in the second round on Sunday, making its candidate Giuliana Di Pillo the new president of Ostia’s council with 15 of her party colleagues sitting alongside her.

Writing on her Facebook page after the victory, Di Pillo said: “It's a victory of honest citizens, who have retaken the local government and who want to rebuild from the rubble”.

Pictured: Giuliana Di Pillo celebrating with party colleagues. “Now the 10th district can really start again; from today we will roll up our sleeves to reclean the culture with legality and transparency, we will work to repay the trust of all the citizens.”

“It's evident that there's been a Five Star Movement effect and a Raggi effect,” she continued, referring to Rome's Five Star mayor Virginia Raggi, who triumphed in elections in the capital last June. “The voters understood that the Five Star Movement is the only political force that has never governed this region and we will work to pay back their trust.”

There will also be nine opposition councillors, including one from the neo-fascist CasaPound party, which has been accused of ties to Ostia’s organized crime families.

Two days after the first-round vote, a member of the notorious Spada clan was filmed headbutting a TV journalist as he sought to question the mobster about his alleged support for CasaPound.

Roberto Spada, the brother of boss Carmine Spada, was arrested for the attack, which left Rai2 journalist Daniele Piervincenzi with a broken nose.

The incident turned an international spotlight on Ostia, where journalists and residents protested in defence of freedom of speech.

READ ALSO: Press freedom in Italy: Six key things to know

Mayor Raggi condemned the attack and pledged to crack down on crime.

Turnout for Ostia's second-round vote was low, at less than 34 percent.

But the result is still good news for the populist Five Star, which also doubled its share of the vote in a regional election in Sicily earlier this month.

The party's founder Beppe Grillo said at the time: “The adventure has only just begun.”

ANALYSIS: There's an election in Italy next year – and the M5S has some familiar problems
 

POLITICS

Meloni, Italy opposition head to hold unprecendented debate

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will spar with main opposition party leader Elly Schlein in an unprecedented debate on May 23 ahead of the European elections.

Published: 11 May 2024 13:15 CEST
Meloni, Italy opposition head to hold unprecendented debate

The debate — the first ever in Italy between a sitting prime minister and the head of the opposition — will be hosted on Rai1, the flagship station of the state broadcaster.

Meloni, head of the Brothers of Italy party, has been in power since October 2022 as part of a coalition with other right-wing parties.

Partly in response to losing that year’s election, Schlein was elected to lead the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in March 2023.

Both of them are at the top of their party’s lists for the June 8-9 European elections.

Neither will take their seats in the European Parliament however with Meloni planning to stay on as prime minister and Schlein preferring to remain a member of the Italian chamber of deputies.

Recent polls put Brothers of Italy at 27 percent in the European vote and the PD at 20 percent.

Apart from both being the first women in their respective positions, the two are polar opposites.

Meloni, 46, is a skilled orator with a modest suburban background. Her party stresses Italy’s Christian roots and has put the fight against immigration on top of its agenda.

Schlein, 39, who is in a couple with another woman, comes from an academic family and also has US and Swiss nationality. She is less comfortable with public speaking than her rival.

Meloni’s party is running on a campaign slogan of “Italy is changing Europe” while Schlein has focused on problems with Italy’s healthcare system.

Negotiations over organising the debate were arduous, both teams said.

Schlein has for months accused the right-wing governing coalition of interfering with coverage at Rai, which she says has become a “government megaphone”.

Italian leaders have long been accused of meddling with Rai, but insiders say intrusions have become more pronounced under Meloni.

Rai journalists have told AFP that investigative reporters have been pushed aside, pro-government commentators promoted, and programmes critical of members of the government cancelled or watered-down.

“I have worked at Rai for 20 years but I have never felt such pressure or seen as much censorship,” Enrica Agostini, a journalist at Rai News, told the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

Some Rai journalists held a 24-hour strike this week, though most programming continued as usual thanks to a union more favourable to the government not joining.

“TeleMeloni is the fruit of imagination of the left”, Brothers of Italy said this week on X.

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