The debacle was already clear in the late afternoon of the 31st, when onions, raudi, kobra thundered in the alleys and along the suburban roads. Now that one minute and one minute has struck and we have entered 2022, we can say it: the anti-barrels ordinance signed by the mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi was a failure.

The ordinance provided for a ban on the use of pyrotechnic material throughout the city from 4 pm on Friday 31 December 2021, until midnight on Saturday 1 January 2022. Fines of up to 500 euros were envisaged, in addition to the seizure of the material. Objective: to avoid a wave of hospitalizations in the emergency rooms of the city already in heavy trouble for those infected by Covid-19.

This was not the case: already in the evening a 40-year-old Sri Lankan was admitted to the old Pellegrini hospital in Naples with a gunshot wound on the left side of the chest, probably a stray bullet exploded “to celebrate”. Until late at night, the stokers “worked” without problems in the historic center, Vomero, the Spanish quarters, the Traiano district, Scampia and Ponticelli.

It was probably right for the Municipality to dare a signal and reiterate its opposition to this type of risky celebrations. But the ordinance, which arrived a few hours before New Year’s Eve and with few checks before midnight, proved essentially useless.