ROME - Five Star movement leader and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi di Maio was lampooned by the opposition Thursday for hiring a statuesque blonde girlfriend, 26 with no relevant experience, for as much 6,000 euros a month to be his secretary in blatant contradiction with his radical party's pledge to eschew croneyism and nepotism.

 Assia Montanino, a friend from the same hometown as Di Maio has been appointed as personal secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister on a salary of 70,00o euros per year. According to Di Maio’s Facebook response to the report first published in Il Giornale, he offered her the job because “she was a young university student to whom I wanted to offer this opportunity… she has proven to be excellent in handling complex secretarial situations. And I can assure you that I've never met a more honest and loyal person than her.”

 Coming from Pomigliano d’Arco – the same Neapolitan municipality as Di Maio – Montanino was a prominent political activist as a student. Supporting Beppe Grillo from the beginning, she ran for the Pomigliano local election in 2015. Winning 170 votes, she just missed out on the victory to Dario De Falco – an old school friend of Di Maio. Her involvement with the campaign allowed her to make the acquaintance of Di Maio, who then offered her an internship inside the Chamber as his personal secretary.

 Montanino had no PA background before working at Di Maio’s office; the Giornale article ironically called her appointment “an impressive career leap” as she will be on call 24/7 for the Italian Deputy Prime Minister in her now-official and highly-paid secretary role.

 The Giornale article sees Montanino’s appointment as part of a trend: two other old friends of Di Maio have also been recently assigned roles in the Ministry of Economic Development. Vito Cozzoli as head of Cabinet, and minister Carlo Calenda has been called back into office to replace Federica Guidi.

 Di Maio’s Facebook response to the article was dismissive of such claims of nepotism: “Shame on you” was his closing comment.

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