The Pact for the change in Naples has been signed. Today, March 29 at 11.52, in the Sala dei Baroni of the Maschio Angioino, the president of the council Mario Draghi and the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, signed the agreement that assigns 1.231 billion to the city in twenty years. The largest share of the 2.67 billion that the government has allocated to the cities most in crisis.
Draghi: funds linked to the achievement of objectives
«The history of Naples and the whole of the South has passed in this magnificent room where the Angevin kings once sat. – says the premier, welcomed in the Sala dei Baroni with a prolonged and warm applause -. A story that has led Naples to be a point of reference not only in Italy but in the world. Our challenge is to allow Naples, and with Naples in the South, to maintain the centrality it deserves ». And he adds: «With the Pact we make a significant contribution to the reorganization of the Municipality’s accounts and we link the payment to the achievement of certain objectives. As Italy does with the PNRR. Municipalities are at the center of the development perspective we have for Italy. The government wants to put them in a position to be able to plan the growth of their community with greater serenity ”.
The need to bridge territorial gaps
The prime minister speaks of the need to bridge the territorial gaps which he defines as “now unbearable”. And he specifies: «The per capita income of the South is half that of the Center and North and the unemployment rate is more than double. To restart the convergence process that has been stopped for 50 years, we must overcome these obstacles ”. And in summary: “We must admit the existence of a southern question but at the same time we must avoid that it is reduced to sterile demands”.
Tackling the problems of the past to prepare for the future
A recurring theme also in the speech of the mayor Manfredi, which started from the dramatic photograph of the current economic and social conditions of the city on which a public debt of 5 billion weighs. A government intervention, Manfredi had conditioned his candidacy to lead the city. “Absolute poverty has increased, we have a dramatic diaspora of young people who leave the city. The marginality and the gaps have increased – lists the mayor _. The city loses the most dynamic part of its population with very high social costs that are becoming irreversible. A phenomenon that risks undermining the future of Naples and that we will oppose with all our strength ». State funding – explains the Undersecretary to the Prime Minister Roberto Garofoli – is anchored to specific commitments that the Municipality assumes, in terms of reforms and investments, borrowing the logic underlying the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. “Resources in exchange for commitments to reforms and investments with quality objectives and certain deadlines”, summarizes the mayor. What is the future to be built with the funds of the Pact and those of the NRP? Naples is the third metropolitan area of Italy with 3 million inhabitants, a place where problems and opportunities are concentrated where the impact of investments is very high.
From digitization to waste
“We will hire a thousand people in the Municipality, starting from 2022, with a drastic intervention for the complete digitalization of services”. Manfredi talks about interventions on the waste cycle, on the water cycle and on the strengthening of the sewage and purification system. The municipality has projects for tlp, education and school, industrial crises, urban regeneration, cultural heritage, research and innovation. “The Government – concludes Manfredi – has given us a great chance”. The list of projects to be carried out with the resources of the Pact is added to that of the interventions that the NRP will finance. “One hundred million will go to the redevelopment of the Real Albergo dei Poveri expected for thirty years – underlines the prime minister – other plans will be implemented in Ponticelli, Capodichino, Chiaiano”. We will have to invest above all in women and young people. On legality. Mario Draghi concludes his visit to Naples with a stop in the Sanità district: “A symbol – for the premier – of a community that knows how to organize itself to remove children from the street, to give hope to its young people”.