In another win for Europe’s anti-establishment movements, Italy’s Five Star Movement party won mayoral elections in Rome and Turin on Sunday, sweeping 37-year-old Virginia Raggi into Rome’s city hall as the capital city’s first female mayor.
In her victory speech, Raggi said Rome will have its first female mayor “in an age where equality of opportunity remains a mirage.”
Raggi, a lawyer turned politician, trounced her center-left opponent Roberto Giachetti by securing 67.2% of the vote, compared to Giachetti’s 32.8%. “I will be a mayor for all Romans,” she said. “I will restore legality and transparency to the city’s institutions after 20 years of poor governance. With us a new era is opening,” she said.
