Rome’s first female mayor emerges

Lawyer and local councillor Virginia Raggi has emerged as the first female mayor of Rome in a development that turns out to be an achievement for the elitist Five Star Movement (M5S).

Raggi’s victory also represents a hurtful stumbling block for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, as she swept two thirds of the votes cast in a run-off contest with Roberto Giachetti of Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (DP).

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The result is a blow for Renzi’s bloc and makes her the rising star of the M5S, the anti-establishment party founded by comedian-turned politician Beppe Grillo.

With only a few months on the campaign trajectory, Raggi has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the popular faces in Italian politics at the moment.

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