ROME – Virginia Raggi,a representative of the anti-establishment Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S), has taken over the mayoral seat in Rome with a decisive 67 percent of the vote. The new mayor, who impressively juggles her political involvement along side being a hands-on mother of seven-year-old Matteo, and wife to Andrea Severini, a radio-broadcaster and political activist, lives in the north of Rome, in the neighbourhood of Ottavia.  She grew up in the San Giovanni area of the City, graduated from the scientific college Newton before gaining a degree in Jurisprudence from the University of Roma Tre and starting to practise as a civil lawyer.

 The success of Ms Raggi marks the end of the, in part, closely contested mayoral battle for the Eternal City. Raggi’s victory to take the seat in Campidoglio, as well as being the jewel in the crown for the increasingly popular M5S, makes history in so far as the 37 year-old, is not only the youngest but also the first female mayor to preside over Rome.

 Ms Raggi, who has taken over the reins of the city from an elected prefect following the embarrassing demise of Ignazio Marino as a result of his spending mishaps, is the 18th mayor of Rome and has a tough job on her hands, to restore the “Mafia capital” to being a “liveable” city for Romans.

 Ms Raggi’s career has blossomed in relatively little time: 2011 marked the start of her involvement with the M5S and two years later, she found herself sitting among the other Senators of the city, in the Aula Giulio Cesare at Campidoglio which then led to her subsequent candidacy and now election in the 2016 mayoral campaign.

 Her popularity it seems, derives in part, from her public image which has consistently been one of “honesty and transparency” and also from her political actions which have been credited with initiating the “winds of change” and the “gentle transformation of old party politics”.

 Equally her position as a young and elegant woman in politics marks a refreshing change from the rather entrenched ‘pale stale male’ image of leadership in the capital, and the added bonus of her apparent stability of character which has “a love for the mountains, Scuba diving and The Little Prince,” has made her a popular choice across the generations.

 However there have been murmurs of supressed involvement in a Berlusconi legal affair that has threatened to blot Ms Raggi’s copybook. Il Fatto Quotidiano reports that she worked in the legal office of Cesare Previti, former politician, right-hand of Berlusconi and convicted criminal on grounds of corruption, between 2003 and 2006. Yet the new mayor defended herself claiming that she had very little to do with the situation and was there to only on menial tasks such as “making photocopies”.

 Ms Raggi has laid out her proposals for during her time in office including conducting an audit on the debt of 13.5 billion of Campidoglio and upping the investment into the repairs on the roads to 150 million, from the current 30 million.

 Among her priorities the new mayor has also laid out projects for the simplification of the city’s administrative system via digitalisation and the open confrontation of the Church about alleged Vatican tax avoidance on areas of real estate.

dt