Rome’s 5-Star mayor admits errors after poor survey showing

Rome’s embattled mayor, the highest-profile elected official of the populist 5-Star Movement, has gone on national television to admit to a series of errors that landed her in second-to-last place in an annual survey of Italy’s mayors.

Mayor Virginia Raggi acknowledged making poor personnel choices, but insisted that the important thing was to not repeat mistakes. She defended herself, saying the city she inherited was “in pieces, disastrous,” and needed to be rebuilt from scratch.

Raggi, who generally avoids Italy’s talk show circuit, agreed to an interview with private La7 on Tuesday after an annual Ipr Marketing poll found she ranked 103 out of 104 mayors based on Italians’ views of their accomplishments.

Compounding the embarrassment, the other big-name 5-Star mayor elected in June, Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino, ranked first.