New Rome Mayor Raises Questions for Olympic Bid

(ATR) Rome 2024 leaders dismiss suggestions that the election of anti-Olympic figure Virginia Raggi will wreck the bid.

Raggi of the 5 Star Movement was elected Sunday with 67.2 percent of the vote in the mayoral run-off against the Democratic Party’s candidate for mayor Roberto Giachetti. The 37-year-old replaces Ignazio Marino who quit last autumn in an expenses scandal.

In her mayoral campaign Raggi was outspoken in her objection against the city’s bid for the Olympics, insisting there were more important projects requiring investment and expressing concerns about the city's corruption troubles impacting the bid. She said last week that a referendum on the Olympic bid may come.

Rome 2024 denies Raggi’s election is a blow to the campaign to land the Olympics.

"There are no impacts, nothing changes from our side," a bid spokesperson told Around the Rings on the election result."We keep consistently working in our bid process, being in these weeks busy and focused on step two of the dossier, the build-up towards Rio, our local activities with schools and territory," she said.

Rome 2024’s top brass have no immediate plans to meet with Raggi in much-needed efforts to engage her support for the bid. What is certain is that the bid, strongly supported by prime minister Matteo Renzi, cannot survive without her support. "In these weeks, we’ve been constantly in touch with both candidates and their teams," the bid said.

"Again, nothing has changed from our side. Our focus is to set a very efficient, sustainable and excellent bid project in order to offer an extraordinary opportunity for Rome and Italy."

Luca di Montezemolo told ATR last week he was "very optimistic we can stay in the race" despite Renzi suggesting the Olympic bid may collapse if Raggi triumphed."I have the impression that the 2024 Olympics would be pulled", Renzi was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA.

In the aftermath of her victory, Raggi is yet to comment on the Olympic bid. The coming days and weeks ahead will be pivotal in Rome's Olympic campaign when the strength of her opposition to spending on the Olympics will become much clearer.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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