Virginia Elena Raggi (; born 18 July 1978) is an Italian lawyer and politician who served as

Mayor of Rome The mayor of Rome ( it, sindaco di Roma) is an elected politician who, along with the Rome City Council ( it, Assemblea Capitolina) of 48 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Rome. As Rome is a '' comune speciale'' since 2009 ...

from

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

as part of the anti-establishment

Five Star Movement The Five Star Movement ( it, Movimento 5 Stelle , M5S) is a political party in Italy. Its leader and president is Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy from 2018 until 2021. The M5S was founded on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a comedian an ...

(M5S). Raggi was both the first candidate from her party and first woman to be elected as mayor of Rome.

Background

Raggi was born and raised in the

Appio-Latino Appio-Latino is the 9th ''quartiere'' of Rome (Italy), identified by the initials Q. IX. The name derives from the ancient roads Via Appia and Via Latina. It belongs to the Municipio VII and Municipio VIII. History The origins of the territo ...

quarter of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, and studied law at the

Roma Tre University Roma Tre UniversityUniroma3.it
( it, Università degli Studi Roma Tre) is an Italian civil law. Despite not having any prior political experience, she credits the birth of her son for sparking her involvement in politics. She was previously a member of local neighborhood boards before joining the

for Rome district XIV in 2011. At the time of her election Raggi lived with her family in the Ottavia suburb in Northern Rome. She is married to fellow M5S member Andrea Severini with whom she has one child, born in 2009.

Election as mayor

In the 2013 municipal election, Raggi was one of four members of the Five Star Movement elected to Rome

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

. The maximum term of office lasts five years, but the resignation of mayor Ignazio Marino (a member of the Democratic Party) triggered early elections; Marino was ousted from office after more than half the city's councillors stepped down. Raggi won the

closed primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

(against Marcello De Vito — the party's 2013 nominee to the office of mayor — and other minor candidates) in preparation for the upcoming June 2016 Rome municipal early election. Described by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' as "a talented debater", Raggi is the first female mayor of the city. She "promised to fight corruption and bring back Rome's splendor a year after a wide-reaching scandal exposed criminal infiltration in city bidding contracts". and opposed the Rome bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics arguing that the city was in a "delicate moment" pointing out the spiralling deficits in Olympic cities. Raggi and her party (

, M5S) came in first place in the first round of voting (5 June 2016) in the Rome mayoral election, garnering over 35 percent of the vote. In the second round of voting (19 June 2016), Raggi opposed

Roberto Giachetti Roberto Giachetti (born 24 April 1961) is an Italian politician, member of Italia Viva and of the Transnational Radical Party. He has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2001. Biography Roberto Giachetti was born in Rome in ...

, a member of the Democratic Party (PD) and Vice President of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

in the XVII Legislature, who obtained over 24 percent of the vote in first round. Raggi won the second round with the 67.2 percent of or slightly over 770,000 votes; she is the first woman and the first member of M5S to hold the office of

Mayor of Rome

One of Raggi's first acts as mayor was the withdrawal of the 2024 Olympic bid stating that "with 13 billion euros in debt, Rome can't afford taking on more debt to make cathedrals in the desert". That position was heavily contested: critics argued that withdrawing the bid wasted the chance of renewing the 1960 Olympic infrastructures with little or no expense, as the funds would have been provided by the IOC (1.5 billion euros), private investors (910 million euros), and the Italian Government (3,2 billion); according to a study from the University Tor Vergata, not hosting the Olympics caused a loss of 7.1 billion gross revenue and also an estimated loss of job opportunities. However, a 2021 paper by the US Council on Foreign Relations on the experience of host cities noted that "a growing number of economists argue that the benefits of hosting the games are at best exaggerated and at worst nonexistent . . . Impact studies carried out or commissioned by host governments before the games often argue that hosting the event will provide a major economic lift by creating jobs, drawing tourists, and boosting overall economic output. However, research carried out after the games shows that these purported benefits are dubious." In February 2017, Raggi was put under investigation for two cases of

malfeasance in office Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a just cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election. Malfeasance in office contrasts with "misfeasance in office", which is the commission of a ''lawful'' act, done in an officia ...

with regard to decisions on staffing of her private office. However, despite the charges on 10 November 2018 the Court dropped all charges against her due to no motive on her behalf, but instead citing Raffaele Marra as responsible for the illegal hirings. In December 2017 she confirmed that she would not run for another term in 2021, according to an internal rule of her party that allows only two elected terms. On 11 August 2020, Raggi stated that she would stand for re-election. Three days later M5S members voted to remove the rule banning members from serving more than two terms. Under her tenure both

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

and

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...

were criticed due to poor quality of passenger service and waste collection. more than 30 buses had caught fire since January 2017 because of poor or no maintenance. The event has become so common that the press reports that every time a bus explodes in Rome the first thing people think of is a lack of maintenance by

Atac ATAC, or Atac, may refer to: * Airborne Tactical Advantage Company, a U.S. government contractor which operates foreign military aircraft for training purposes * Anti-Terrorist Action Command, a fictional police organization in the 1981 movie ''Ni ...

—Rome's public transport company—rather than a terrorist attack. Virginia Raggi - Festival Economia 2016

A ballot was proposed by the

Italian Radicals The Italian Radicals ( it, Radicali Italiani, RI) is a liberal and libertarian political party in Italy. Founded on 14 July 2001 with Daniele Capezzone as their first secretary, the party describes itself as "''liberale'', ''liberista'' nd''li ...

following the petition signed by inhabitants of the city to assign via public tender the public transport service to private contractors in order to provide a more efficient service, but Raggi postponed it first to June 2018 from the initial date of 4 March that year, and then indefinitely in autumn 2018. Although many people in Rome were not happy with her handling of the ATAC bus situation in Rome and wanted change, only 16.3% voted in the 12 November 2018 ballot, failing to meet the minimum 33.3% needed for approval and leaving the bus service in public hands. From January 2019 tourist buses were banned from the centre of Rome. The Casamonica crime clan, associated with racketeering, extortion and usury for decades, illegally built garishly decorated villas. Illegally built villas in the Quadraro district were demolished in 2018 during the mayoralty of Virginia Raggi. In March 2019 Raggi faced calls for her resignation after three of Rome's metro stations were closed due to concerns about malfunctioning escalators. In 2018 news media reported that the average wait time for waste collection had increased to 2–3 weeks, causing

carrion crow The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus ''Corvus'' which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species or ...

s, bugs, rats,

seagull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, ...

s and even

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species i ...

s to proliferate. In a September 2017

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

on the approval rating of local administrators, Raggi was rated 88th, with 44.4% approval. From the ''2018 Quality of Life in Italy'' survey jointly conducted by ''Italia Oggi'', a financial newspaper, and

Roma Tre University Roma Tre UniversityUniroma3.it
( it, Università degli Studi Roma Tre) is an Italian Trevi Fountain The Trevi Fountain ( it, Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. Standing high and wide, it is the lar ...

and use that money towards the funding of the city. After the backlash the Raggi administration faced she instead scrapped the idea and let the money continue going to charity.

References

External links

* of Virginia Raggi , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Raggi, Virginia 21st-century Italian lawyers 1978 births Living people Mayors of Rome Women mayors of places in Italy Five Star Movement politicians Italian Roman Catholics Metropolitan City of Rome Capital People from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital 2010s in Rome 21st-century Italian politicians 21st-century Italian women politicians Politicians from Rome