Twenty-six members of Rome city council tendered their resignations on Friday depriving embattled mayor Ignazio Marino of his ruling majority and signalling the end of his two-year administration of the capital.
The councillors who resigned from Rome's 48-member municipal council include 19 from Marino's centre-left Democratic Party, and five from the opposition.
The move paves the way for the assembly to be dissolved and a commissioner to run the capital until mayoral elections next Spring.
Earlier on Friday, Marino confirmed media reports that he is being probed in two separate investigations, but strongly denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had acted "transparently".
But a day earlier, Marino withdrew the resignation he tendered earlier in the month over an expenses scandal linked to alleged use of his municipal credit card for private dinners, a move that set him on a collision course with premier Matteo Renzi and the Democratic Party.
Rome-based daily La Repubblica earlier reported that one of the investigations was into allegations Marino paid for private dinners with his municipal credit card while a second probe concerned fraud at a charity he founded.
Marino was elected with a strong reputation for personal honesty, but his administration has been buffeted by a series of damaging stories since he was elected to a five-year term in 2013.
One of the most unpopular politicians in Italy, Marino has come under fire in recent months, facing mounting public anger over the dilapidated state of the capital, a failing public transport system and allegations of mafia infiltration of the municipal authority.
