the editorial
twelve o’clock, November 12, 2021 – 08:54
from Enzo d ‘Errico
In the end, as always, everything revolves around the same question: which Naples do we want? If we had to look only at the results of the last elections, the answer would be incontrovertible: we want a sober, authoritative and credible city after ten years of carefree (and I mean thoughtless, not cheerful) noise. 63 percent of voters, in fact, chose Gaetano Manfredi who embodies this hope even physically, with his elegant and slender silhouette. However, it would be a grave mistake to believe in the palingenesis of a socio-cultural heritage that has polluted the language of institutions for too long, devastating public discourse and, consequently, the collective imagination of our metropolis. We must not forget, continuing to think about the electoral data, that more than half of the people have deserted the polls, showing total disinterest in the fate of the place they live in, revealing a disillusionment that no political project has managed to dent. Of course, in democracy those who do not vote are wrong because their protest remains voiceless. But since it is a majority with which sooner or later we will have to deal, it is necessary to ask ourselves which Naples dreams of those who remained stuck in the house, a prisoner of bitterness and disenchantment. To ask oneself if for them there is an idea of the future capable of snatching them from the immanence of the present.
The feeling that, as things stand, there is not yet a horizon capable of directing the pace with radical choices, which give the true meaning of a turning point. That fifty percent or more is there, motionless, silent, as if it didn’t exist. Convinced that government is a matter reserved for the elite, a parallel world populated by university professors, notables and professional politicians (all over 50) who possess the essential knowledge to decrypt the mysteries hidden behind an acronym (the PNRR) on which it depends their tomorrow. Do you want to blame him? It seems difficult to me. It would do well, then, the mayor Manfredi not to neglect the symbology of his acts, to keep his gaze glued to today without forgetting that he was elected to cut ties with the past. That is, to nurture a new ruling class, to draw an unprecedented profile of what we will be in the years to come, to restore breath to the free comparison of ideas and call the disillusioned to participate. Agree, a long-range work that cannot be measured with the meter of a few weeks but that cannot even be started with an excess of mediations, on pain of the lack of solidity of the administrative and narrative system, a fundamental element if one really wants to pull. out of the shallows the silent majority. Let’s take an example. For days we have been debating about the Christmas lights that, with two million and 200 thousand euros spent, the Chamber of Commerce is setting up in the neighborhoods. Let’s put aside the aesthetic aspect: for what it’s worth, in my opinion they are obscene in the literary meaning of the term, ie off stage, completely foreign to the context of a city of art. How the hell can you think of installing a bright tree, 23 meters high, in Piazza del Plebiscito or a neon nativity scene, complete with glittering angels, in front of the facade of the Duomo? But, above all, what are the superintendencies for if they are unable to protect the aesthetics of places full of history? Attention, however: these questions become details if we observe the political and cultural panorama in which the Chamber of Commerce event is inscribed. In fact we are inside an idea of a city that exactly coincides with the one we should leave behind: Naples as a sideshow destined to attract a (possible) hit and run tourism, a Las Vegas in a minor where people are encouraged to spend by shining puppets and colorful, a land of toys in which to feed compulsive shopping even at the cost of sacrificing the beauty built over the centuries. Do you remember N’Albero built by de Magistris on the seafront? Here, the same logic, the same aesthetics. In short, nothing but the infamous open-air frying, the right habitat for the wild nightlife of consumption. Someone claims that the Luci d’Artista have attracted thousands and thousands of people to Salerno. But Naples not Salerno. At least for now. Comparing the capital of the South to a beautiful provincial town means ignoring (or pretending to ignore) history. Having said that, we could dismiss the initiative as a detritus of the last ten years, a remnant of the past to be digested and filed quickly, were it not that Mayor Manfredi will operate the lights tomorrow. Why? Was it so essential to put your seal on a Naples that clashes with the one he longed for in the electoral campaign? It would have been enough to let an exhibition already planned for some time slip away into carelessness and dedicate oneself to imagining Christmas 2022. It would have been a sustainable mediation gesture. Instead, the former rector wanted to put his face on it, perhaps believing that we can keep everything and the opposite of everything together. But this is not how the majority of Neapolitans – the one who stayed at home – will regain confidence in politics. And not for this reason that 63 percent of voters chose Manfredi and his promises of change. We are only at the beginning and there is no lack of encouraging signs. For what concern Corriere del Mezzogiorno, we believe that a very important junta is at work at Palazzo San Giacomo and that its leader represents a real hope for those who dream of a modern Naples, similar to the great European capitals.
However, we also believe that we must be mayor of all citizens. But not of all possible cities. And we will continue to write it if necessary.
November 12, 2021 | 08:54
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