Religion Roman Catholicism Spouse Andrea Severini | Children 1 Occupation Lawyer Height 1.65 m Parents Lorenzo Raggi | |
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Preceded by Francesco Paolo Tronca as Special Commissioner Full Name Virginia Elena Raggi Similar Beppe Grillo, Luigi Di Maio, Alessandro Di Battista, Chiara Appendino, Matteo Renzi Profiles | ||
Virginia Elena Raggi ([virˈdʒiːnja ˈraddʒi]; born 18 July 1978) is an Italian lawyer and politician, the 65th and current Mayor of Rome, she was first elected in 2016. Raggi represents the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), and is both the first candidate from that party and the first woman to be elected to Rome's mayoralty.
Biography
Raggi was born and raised in the Appio Latino district of Rome, and studied law at the Roma Tre University, specialising in judicial and extrajudicial civil law. Raggi was previously a member of local neighborhood boards before joining the Five Star Movement for Rome district XIV in 2011.
In the 2013 municipal election, Raggi was one of four members of the Five Star Movement elected to Rome city council. The maximum term of office lasts five years, but the resignation of mayor Ignazio Marino (a member of the Democratic Party) triggered early elections; Marino was ousted from office after more than half the city's councillors stepped down. Raggi won the closed primary (against Marcello De Vito — the party's 2013 nominee to the office of Mayor — and other minor candidates) in preparation for the upcoming June 2016 Rome municipal early election. Defined by The Economist as "a talented debater", Raggi is the first female Mayor of the city. She "promised to fight corruption and bring back Rome’s splendor a year after a wide-reaching scandal exposed criminal infiltration in city bidding contracts". Raggi also opposes Rome’s bid to host the Olympic 2024 Olympic Games arguing that the city is in a “delicate moment” pointing out the spiralling deficits in Olympic cities. In June 2016 Raggi said “with 13 billion euros in debt, Rome can’t afford taking on more debt to make cathedrals in the desert […] my no is very clear”.
Raggi and her party (Five Star Movement, M5S) came in first place in the first round of voting (5 June 2016) in the Rome mayoral election, garnering over 35 percent of the vote. In the second round of voting (19 June 2016), Raggi opposed Roberto Giachetti, a member of the Democratic Party (PD) and Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies in the XVII Legislature, who obtained over 24 percent of the vote in first round. Raggi won the second round with the 67.2 percent of or slightly over 770,000 votes; she is the first woman and the first member of M5S to hold the office of Mayor of Rome.Raggi is at present under investigation by Italian justice in two cases of "abuso d' ufficio" (misuse of office) with regard to decisions on staffing of her private office.
Raggi lives with her family in the Ottavia zone of Rome. She is married to fellow M5S member Andrea Severini with whom she has one child, born in 2009.
She is a Catholic and married in the church.
