Will Grillo's party fail in Rome?
Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi is facing a crisis of government: close confidants in the city council as well as the managers of the rapid transit and waste disposal systems resigned on Thursday. The new mayor, who was swept into office last June with the electoral breakthrough of the Movimento Cinque Stelle, has been overwhelmed by the demands put on her by the former protest movement, commentators believe, noting that the party has now lost its allure.
The frail shoulders of Virginia Raggi
The party leaders have left Virginia Raggi in the lurch, the left-wing daily Il Fatto Quotidiano complains:
“The movement is suffering the effects of its political fragility, reflected in the frail figure of the mayor. She is expected to absorb and deal with the frequently unreasonable and contradictory demands made of her from within the movement. On the one side her loyal political fellow travellers - without doubt full of passion, but entirely lacking in experience - on the other the national party leaders. The current deafening silence from [party leaders] Di Maio and Di Battista is an indication that the town council is in a truly embarrassing and dangerous situation. This crisis will be costly and its outcome is uncertain. It weighs heavily on the already frail shoulders of Virginia Raggi.”
Rebellion and government are two different things
The Movimento Cinque Stelle party has lost its magic in Rome, writes La Repubblica:
“What has happened to the things that made Cinque Stelle different? What has become of the innocence and the purity of this movement? Where is the 'non-party' with its 'non-statutes' that grew from the grass roots and would revolutionise politics and rebuild democracy with its sacred founding principles (everyone is equal, there is no leader)? The movement has become caught up in a maelstrom of incompetence and presumption. … It is right to rebel against the elites. And the movement, with its close to nine million voters in the parliamentary elections of 2013, embodied this legitimate instance of democratic rebellion. But once you're in government it's a different matter entirely.”