Second rally in favour of outgoing Rome mayor.

A large crowd gathered at city hall on Sunday 25 October to show support for outgoing Rome mayor Ignazio Marino, the second such demonstration calling on him not to resign.

"You asked me to reconsider, I will think about it and I will not disappoint you", Marino told his supporters in Piazza del Campidoglio. 

The rally was supported by the left-wing Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL) party, and attended by some members of Marino's Partito Democratico (PD), along with various councillors, several of whom are on hunger strike in support of the mayor.

Marino acknowledged that his administration had made mistakes but also said that it was responsible for “rooting out the cancer of Parentopoli”, the widespread practice of nepotism at Rome's rubbish agency AMA.

Marino is in the last days of his tenure as mayor after resigning on 8 October following political pressure, both from the PD and the opposition, over his credit card expenses charged to the city.

In recent days he said that he had “never used public money for private purposes", underlining that he is not personally under investigation in a probe into apparent inconsistencies in his municipal expenses.

When his resignation becomes final at the end of this month, the city’s prefect Franco Gabrielli is expected to name a commissioner who will oversee the winding up of the present city administration.

Photo Corriere della Sera