Naples, degradation emergency in Piazza Garibaldi

Naples – Piazza Garibaldi, one of the city's busiest and most iconic areas, is increasingly hostage to decay. Around the Central Station, amidst suitcases, garbage, and cardboard boxes turned into beds, the situation appears out of control: bivouacs, brawls, prostitution, and drug dealing are now part of the daily landscape.

The report was made by the Green-Left Alliance MP, Francesco Emilio Borrelli, who received yet another report from a citizen, accompanied by photos documenting the state of abandonment.

The images show the area of ​​the Garibaldi statue reduced to an open-air camp, with piles of rubbish and people forced to sleep on the ground, amidst disorder and degradation.

"In Piazza Garibaldi," the citizen writes, "abandonment and violence reign. Fights, prostitution, and drug dealing break out every day. It's a situation unworthy of a major European city."
The words are confirmed by the facts: empty bottles, food scraps, piles of clothes, filth everywhere. A situation that, according to Borrelli, represents "an institutional failure" and an insult to urban decorum.

"This square," the MP states, "should be Naples's calling card, the first face anyone arriving in the city sees. Instead, it's a zone of total anarchy, abandoned for too long despite promises of redevelopment."
Borrelli calls for immediate, comprehensive intervention, involving law enforcement and social services: clearing out the camps, restoring safety, and at the same time ensuring dignity for those living on the streets.

"We cannot allow violence, drug dealing, and degradation to continue to tarnish our community and the image of Naples," he concludes. "It's time to move from words to action."