We must sincerely recognize that the countless gaffes that have accompanied the race of the grillina Virginia Raggi to conquer the Campidoglio in Rome have not so far arrested the electoral momentum. But, if you take a look at the dizzying exchange of messages on the Net and on social media, those who argue that what has happened in the last few days may perhaps reopen the games for the conquest of Rome in next Sunday's ballot are probably not entirely wrong. Not only because the memory of the turnaround that surprisingly handed the city over to the former Fascist Gianni Alemanno in the ballot in 2008 is still alive in the capital, despite the fact that the former mayor Francesco Rutelli had won the first round of administrative elections with an advantage of more than 80 more than five percentage points of difference, but for the surprises that the campaign for the ballot is reserving for the Romans.
The hatred towards the leadership of Matteo Renzi on a national level and the righteous indignation towards the scandal of Mafia Capitale and towards the inglorious end of the former mayor Ignazio Marino on the local level had so far drawn a pitiful veil on the slips and on the sorties, now adventurous and now ambiguous, della Raggi, who in the first round of the administrations was able to skillfully capitalize on the protest vote that is always very widespread in Rome.
Surprisingly, the standard-bearers of political and administrative purity and transparency who had found expression in the 5 Star Movement considered Raggi's omission of her traineeship as a lawyer from 2003 to 2007 in one of the most discussed studies in the capital to be little more than a youthful oversight like that of Cesare Previti, the former Forza Italia minister who not only never hid his fascist past but who in those very years was convicted of bribing the judges of the Court of Rome, rightly considered at the time the port of fog. Nor were the singers of one-sided puritanism surprised to have discovered the grillina candidate for president of a company in Alemanno's entourage.
But, in a daring interview with Espresso a few weeks ago, Raggi went beyond the sins of her youth and candidly confessed that, if she becomes mayor of Rome, it will be with limited sovereignty because on the deeds of high administration, on the appointments and in the case of notices of guarantee you will not respond to your Roman constituents but will consult with the staff of Beppe Grillo, as required by the Grillino code of conduct that you signed. On the occasion, Raggi, although pressed by the Espresso interviewer, did not reveal her point of view on the exit from the euro, which is one of Grillo's usual strong points, saying she did not have the time to investigate the question, despite the fact that the single currency was introduced more than fifteen years ago. On the other hand, in the midst of the electoral campaign, Raggi delighted us with extravagant proposals such as that of a cable car to streamline traffic and that of bartering.
All this did not prevent the casual grillina candidate from reaping support, but the best was yet to come. First on the Olympics and then with the endorsement of the last mayors of Rome. In line with Grillo's hostility to all great works and great challenges, Raggi, while trying to tone it down, did not hide her refusal of Rome's candidacy for the 2024 Rome Olympics but with reasons that they revealed all the fragility of his political thought. She says Raggi: the citizens I met ask me to think about the emergency of potholes and public transport. Sacrosanct, but from today the Olympics are 8 years away: aren't they enough to solve the problem of potholes and public transport? And if it's not enough, why isn't it enough? Why doesn't Raggi, if she becomes mayor, believe she is able to solve problems of routine maintenance even if they have an extraordinary electoral impact such as potholes and transport? It took the wisdom of the mayor of Cagliari, Massimo Zedda, who is from Sel, to explain to her that the very benefits that can come to a municipality from extraordinary works such as the Olympics can not only create thousands of new jobs but guarantee the resources also for ordinary administration.
But the novelty of the novelties that surrounds Raggi's candidacy in great ambiguity is the perhaps unexpected but certainly not rejected endorsement of the two worst mayors of Rome of the last twenty years: of Gianni Alemanno, whose dedication to familistic clientelism will remain for a long time in the memory of the Romans, and of Ignazio Marino, dismissed by his own party (the Democratic Party) for manifest incapacity.
Why do Alemanno and Marino feel the need to spend themselves publicly for the Rays? Certainly out of hatred and desire for revenge against Renzi and against the Democratic Party, but not only. There is an unconfessed dream of continuity in their explanations of vote and there is the Gattopardesque intuition that with Raggi's velleitarianism in Rome, everything in appearance can change because in reality nothing will change. Just the opposite of what the Capital badly needs today: getting out of the swamp, changing pace in ordinary administration as in major projects and finally returning to being the Capital. Without cunning but with great clarity of ideas.
