Italy's former civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso is pulling out of Rome's mayoral race as the conservative Forza Italia party's candidate in favour of businessman Alfio Marchini, its leader Silvio Berlusconi announced on Thursday.
"We have decided with Guido Bertoalso to back the candidacy of Alfio Marchini," Berlusconi said.
"Marchini is the only candidate - according to opinion polls - who can win a run-off against all the other political forces," he stated.
"It is not a new choice. Marchini had been our first option, and had been dropped because of vetoes from a coalition ally," Berlusconi said, referring to the Northern League party's leader Matteo Salvini, one of Italy's leading rightwing politicians.
Bertolaso had been lagging far behind the other candidates in opinion polls on the June local elections.
The Northern League's candidate, Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party and the populist Five-Star Movement's Virginia Raggi are the current favourites for Rome's next mayor, followed by Italy's ruling centre-left Democratic Party candidate Roberto Giachetti and Marchini, who was running as an independent.
Forza Italia on Thursday said it hoped that "all the centre right" would rally behind Marchini.
