ROME -- Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi was fighting to keep her showcase municipal government afloat Friday after a rash of resignations due to infighting within the radical M5S Five Star Movement.

 The latest to quit were Marco Rettighieri, the director general of Atac, Rome’s public transport administration company, Armando Brandolese, Atac’s sole administrator, and Alessandro Solidoro, the newly-appointed president of Ama, the city’s environmental administration.

 These followed Raggi’s head of cabinet, Carla Raineri’s ‘definitive resignation’ on Wednesday due to the mayor’s concerns over transparency and corruption, backed by the ANAC, Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority. Raineri had previously been subject to a controversy over her extremely high yearly salary of 193,000 euros, according to ‘Il Corriere della sera’.

 This sparked a subsequent resignation, also on Wednesday, of Marcello Minenna, a key councillor for budget within her council. The city is now left in chaos under Raggi, who took office in June for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement on an anti-corruption mandate.

 Criticisms of “a five-star flop” have been made by Italy’s Democratic party, and Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has distanced himself from the proceedings: “Resignations in the municipal council? I’ll keep my mouth zipped.”

  However, Raggi has said “this will not stop us, we are not dwelling on this, let us get to work to find replacements.”

 nkd