Le Figaro merciless: «Naples is the third world of Europe». And only the hi-tech Polo in San Giovanni a Teduccio saves
seen from abroad
twelve o’clock, November 16, 2021 – 07:40 am
Reportage from the French newspaper. “Manfredi? The Neapolitan elites await him like a messiah ». And again: “While all cities are transformed, it remains perched on its clichés”
from Anna Paola Merone
Naples between lights and shadows. A city “exhausting and suffocated by its debts, waiting for its savior”. Le Figaro recounted the elections in Italy, dedicating almost a page to the Naples case. Valèrie Segond’s article was published on Sunday 3 October. And it starts with an assumption. “If he were not a declared Juventus fan Gaetano Manfredi have a good chance of being elected mayor of Naples in the first round … He is the opposite of the outgoing mayor … The Neapolitan elites await him as the Messiah” writes Segond, who was prophetic. «Gaetano Manfredi imposed himself on everyone, he won hands down – he notes -. We chose to tell Naples precisely because we imagined that the victory would be immediate and overwhelming, because Naples is a reference city for many French who find it there for their travels. It is a real city in the South, full of problems, contradictions, drowned by debts and the problem of the Camorra and more susceptible to possible changes. The chronicle of those days is a starting point to decipher the present and focus on priorities, emergencies, critical points but also to underline the greatness of a city, which first of all refers to technological development. You have a small Silicon Valley, authentic excellence ».
Difficult everyday life
For the rest there is little to be happy about: “Naples is the third world of Europe” says Segond who recalls the closed Victory tunnel, Bagnoli and his thirty years of promises and projects that have fallen on deaf ears, traffic in the streets, the decay, the abandoned green. “While all the cities of Europe are transformed, Naples remains entrenched in its clichés, which are also its charm”. Therefore tourists love it, the cultural life is lively and the museums certainly crowded, but daily life remains difficult, with public transport in a rush, the subway yards opened since 1990 and still pending and the inefficient municipal services, with a insufficient staffing and poverty in the suburbs explosive. “A poverty of services – which the editor of Corriere del Mezzogiorno, Enzo d’Errico told Le Figaro – has first of all penalized the poor, who cannot afford to resort to private services”.
“Apple in a wasteland”
The small business in the sector and the Camorra do business differently in the territories and also do in the health sector. Meanwhile, the Region has launched some urban regeneration actions, such as in Scampia, “a dormitory city north of Naples famous for Gomorrah”, notes the French newspaper. But the real center of excellence is in San Giovanni a Teduccio. “A wasteland where Apple created in 2016 a European training center for app developers, the Apple Academy to which nine other companies and companies have joined …. A hub from which a total of a thousand young people leave every year »Notes Le Figaro to whom Giorgio Ventre scientific director of Apple Academy, says with great clarity that in Naples« there is a small Silicon Valley, the third for the number of star-ups created ». Another light in the painful city is Tecno: “On the Riviera di Chiaia overlooking the sea there is a company – says Valérie Segond – for remote monitoring of the environmental impact of large sites”. The president and founder Giovanni Lombardi proudly tells the French newspaper that of his 140 employees, 25 come from the North. But the shadows are dark. “Naples is overwhelmed by debts and has the highest debt per capita in Italy” as confirmed by the candidate Manfredi to Segond. Who now, as mayor, has rolled up his sleeves, has his own team and is waiting for the government to keep some promises. While France watches from afar.
November 16, 2021 | 07:40
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