Naples: The centuries-old pine tree on Via Netti has been cut down.

This morning, after six months of conflict between private citizens intent on cutting it down and environmental groups determined to defend it, the ninety-year-old pine tree on Via Netti was felled. The operation involved the police, Carabinieri, Municipal Police, Digos (Special Operations Unit), and Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police), in a display of force that drew ironic comparisons to special forces.

The municipal authorization and the controversy over the appraisal

The Municipal Administration authorized the intervention based exclusively on a private expert report, denying citizens and associations the opportunity to submit a counter-report to verify the tree's condition.

City Councilor Emeritus Carmine Attanasio, a lifelong advocate for protecting public greenery, expressed his disappointment in a statement. "I have collaborated with the Administration on many initiatives to protect the city's tree population," he stated, announcing his withdrawal from the project. "This government is supported by fake environmentalists: if they wanted, they could finance a counter-review or create a political problem, as I did as a councilor to pressure the Authority into investing a few thousand euros."

The trauma of Via Aniello Falcone and the fear of the managers

Attanasio linked the incident to the 2013 tragedy, when Cristina Alongi died under a fallen tree on Via Aniello Falcone, an event that led to the city officials being prosecuted. Since then, according to the councilor emeritus, officials have avoided legal risks by opting for preventative tree felling, as happened in the past in Posillipo with the removal of almost all the neighborhood's trees, including the healthy ones.

The depletion of city greenery

"A healthy, upright, and thriving pine tree was needlessly killed," Attanasio concluded, pointing the finger at private maintenance costs evaded. This incident, he said, depletes Naples' tree population, with future generations responsible for the environmental damage accumulated over the last seventy years.