The northern city of Parma's mayor is being probed for abuse of office over two appointments at its opera-house - the second senior politician from the grassroots Five-Star movement to be investigated in under a week.
The judicial probe against Federico Pizzarotti is the latest embarrassment for Italy's second-biggest party, which hopes to make major gains in local elections next month and has built its success on a non-corrupt image.
Pizzarotti confirmed he is under investigation and denied wrongdoing, stating on Facebook that he felt "calm" about the probe.
"I am calm because it is a formality," wrote Pizzarotti, who was the first Five-Star politician to be elected mayor of a provincial capital.
"My administration will keep going forward as will my unreserved personal commitment," said Pizzarotti,
The Five-Star movement's Virginia Raggi, a frontrunner in Rome's mayoral race, told Adnkronos that it was too early to say if Pizzarotti should resign.
"It's necessary to verify what the specific charges are and to make a decision on that basis. This could be resignation or continuing with a democratic mandate," Raggi stated.
Four Parma culture officials are also under investigation, La Gazzetta di Parma reported.
The probe against Pizzarotti came after Filippo Nogarin, mayor of the Tuscan city Livorno, said on Saturday he was under investigation for fraudulent bankruptcy over the city garbage collection company.
Nogarin has also denied wrongdoing.
Pizzarotti was put under investigation after a politician from Italy's ruling centre-left Democratic Party complained that the person appointed head of Parma's Teatro Regio opera house last year had not taken part in the official selection process.
The probe is examining the selection process from which its seven candidates were excluded for not being suitably qualified. It is also investigating the appointment of a consultant for the opera-house's development and special projects.
The Five-Star movement earlier this year expelled the mayor of Quarto, near the southern city of Naples, after a police probe indicated that her administration had been infiltrated by the local mafia.
