“From my experience as mayor of Rome I came out poorer than when I started. I had to sell a house and take out a mortgage”. These are the words spoken last night at Porta a Porta by theformer mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, overwhelmed in recent days by the accusations that see him under investigation for mafia-type association in the judicial investigation "Mondo di mezzo", which in recent days has led to the arrest of 37 people including the former Nar Massimo Carminati and the former CEO of the Eur Riccardo Mancini, and involved in all a hundred local politicians and entrepreneurs in particular for abusiness in waste management, green area maintenance and nomad camps. And while the first interrogations of arrested and under investigation are underway in the prosecutor's office, Alemanno has also suspended himself from party positions in the Brothers of Italy.
"Dear Giorgia, I inform you of my irrevocable decision to suspend myself from all party bodies, until my position is fully and positively clarified", this is the incipit of the letter addressed to Giorgia Meloni, leader of the party. The former mayor's decision comes on a hectic day, filled with political reactions to the earthquake that shook the capital and which brought to light, through the words of Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone, the existence of a "mafia capital, entirely Roman and original, with no ties to other southern organizations, of which, however, it uses the mafia method and with which it compares on an equal footing". A mafia that "does not have a precise structure but has the essential ability to create balance between very different worlds".
The words of the investigating magistrate also "upset" Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who spoke in the evening on La7, where he said he was "upset because seeing a serious person like the Rome prosecutor talk about the mafia strikes me a lot. Roman politicians must make a profound reflection. This is why I accepted Lionello Cosentino's willingness to take a step back from the Roman secretariat of the Democratic Party. I proposed the commissioner in the person of the president of the party, Orfini ".
The commissioning of the secretariat is not the only repercussion that the matter has in the Roman public administration, even within the current centre-left majority. In the evening, the mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino (whose council and majority are affected by the investigation) removed Italo Walter Politano, under investigation, from the Integrity, Transparency and Simplification direction. In the order for Politano's removal signed by Marino, the provision is motivated by "the extraordinary nature and relevance of the recent events connected with the investigations which also involved the administrative structures of this body". The functions have been assigned to the deputy secretary general, Luigi Maggio.
24 hours after the arrests, Eugenio Patanè (Pd), former city councilor and president of the Culture commission of the Lazio Region, under investigation for mafia association, also resigned. On Tuesday, two other democratic exponents left office, the commissioner of the House Daniele Ozzimo (under investigation) and the president of the city council of Roma Capitale, Mirko Coratti. The deputy dem Roberto Morassut even asks that "the Roman Democratic Party reset the cards" and writes: "We were well aware that between 2008 and 2013 the plundering right had bled the Municipality, but in this investigation there is the pain of an involvement not irrelevant of the Democratic Party".
