De Laurentiis, the Ultras and the postponed carnival

Far be it from us to fall back on the usual stereotypes that portray Naples as the city of Pulcinella, of masks, of an eternal carnival and so on. Precisely for this reason, however, the whole dispute between the President of Naples, Aurelio De Laurentiis, and the Neapolitan Ultras can be determined a carnival farce: out of time, since more than two months ago the carnival was celebrated all over Italy. In fact, a theater of the absurd has been staged in the last few days, which in view of the “last” act does not even displace the viewer, but rather shows the gaps in a tragi-comic plot.

ADL published a photo on its Twitter profile in the company of the Ultras at the Hotel Britannique after a cheerful meeting lasting several hours with mutual requests and concessions, the newspapers report. Gone are the days when, a few days ago, ADL accused the Ultras of being an insurmountable obstacle to the growth of Napoli and Italian football in general, invoked confusingly an alleged “Thatcher model” and the results of the Azzurri to Fueling capitalized on discontent in the city, creating a civil war atmosphere in which the healthy Napoli fans should rebel themselves against the “bad guys”, only interested in themselves and not in the well-being of the club.

Then Spalletti’s words followed: “We play at home and compete against each other. AND inexplicable how you can experience something like that and whether it also happens in the second leg I leave from the bank.”

Eventually even escorting De Laurentiis in a conflict of irreducible tones that now seemed incurable. At least until yesterday, and the photo that the Neapolitan President posted with the caption «We are Naples. President and fans united to win». The same slogan, “We are Naples,” was used by fans to contest the presidency. As writes the Corriere della Sera: “One surreal landscape also noting that in recent days the Prefecture of Naples has increased protection measures for De Laurentiis for some threats revealed by the environmental monitors carried out during the subsequent investigations in Naples-Milan on April 2nd».

Looking ahead to the Champions League semifinals, on the other hand, is more important than any struggle to eradicate from national football those black men responsible for its chronic lag and lack of development. And so, already yesterday, Maradona returned to sing and liven up, after a negotiation for which the Ultras “open to accepting the stadium rules, De Laurentiis is in favor of giving up the loyalty card to buy tickets“. When it comes to the alleged guarantee, the Corriere always writes from fan engagement hotter in the Scudetto party – which the bureau had instead decided to exclude.

In short, if De Laurentiis wanted to send a strong message, namely that of getting rid of the hottest fans for a new Italian model of fans and stadiums that would transcend and eliminate certain archaic, violent, almost tribal logics, however, the opposite message was conveyed: without the side of the fans, without come to terms Not even someone like De Laurentiis can go on with them. And as he writes in it Article Il Napolista, we have landed “beyond the cabaret”.

«De Laurentiis went from extremist line to souvenir photo in less than ten days. It was well known that he was not a man with a political focus. But this time it crossed the line of ridiculousness. He also, hopefully involuntarily, turned on the institutions that had gone so far as to provide him with an escort service: a serious move. We’re past the joke. Another ridiculous side of this city. Ridiculous and serious. And that will certainly have negative consequences in the long run».

institutions that would be the basis of this meeting, even with the Mayor of Naples Manfredi as mediator of Peace and the Prefecture and Police Headquarters to act behind the scenes. «Manfredi was “mediator” between the parties, in the morning there was a discussion in the prefecture in the presence of the prefect himself, the quaestor and De Laurentiis to prepare the meeting planned for the afternoon», writes the Corriere dello Sport. More than a Neapolitan story, an Italian story: so many proclamations in vain and a war that ended early in negotiations. With bad taste, a bit of tragedy, a bit of comedy and theater in American-Neapolitan sauce with everything.