Marano: Former Mayor Morra and former Councilor Carandente are ineligible: the Court upholds the Ministry of the Interior's appeal.

Matteo Morra, former mayor of Marano di Napoli, and Luigi Carandente, former city councilor, have been declared ineligible by the Court of North Naples in the civil proceedings initiated by the Ministry of the Interior following the dissolution of the City Council due to organized crime infiltration.

The ruling, filed on August 3 by the First Civil Section, establishes that the two administrators will not be able to run for election to the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, the European Parliament, and in regional, provincial, municipal, and district elections in the two electoral rounds following the dissolution of the institution.

The Public Prosecutor's Office of North Naples also appeared in the proceedings and, as required by law, filed a brief accompanied by extensive documentation deemed useful by the panel to reach a decision.

The decision is not final and can be challenged through the normal appeal mechanisms provided by law.

The dissolution of the municipality due to mafia infiltration

This ruling represents one of the effects of the dissolution of the Municipality of Marano di Napoli, ordered by the Council of Ministers and subsequently formalized by Presidential Decree dated September 5, 2025.

According to the prefectural report attached to the dissolution decree, the investigations by the access commission revealed forms of interference by organized crime in administrative activities, compromising the proper functioning of the institution and the impartiality of administrative action.

The decree also highlighted relationships between the mayor, the deputy mayor, and several businessmen believed to be linked to local criminal activity, as well as numerous contracts awarded to companies deemed unsuitable from an anti-mafia perspective. These circumstances, according to the Ministry of the Interior, had led to a loss of credibility for the municipal institution and necessitated its eighteen-month administration.

The judicial and administrative affair

The case involving Matteo Morra and Luigi Carandente arose from the prefectural inspection launched in the Municipality of Marano, culminating in the access commission's report.

Based on these findings, the Council of Ministers resolved to dissolve the municipal administration, while the Prefect of Naples immediately ordered the suspension of the mayor, the municipal council, and the city council, entrusting the management of the institution to an extraordinary commission composed of three prefectural commissioners.

The proceedings now concluded before the Court of Naples North are separate from the dissolution of the municipality: they concern the personal ineligibility assessment provided for by Article 143, paragraph 11, of the Consolidated Law on Local Authorities, which allows the Ministry of the Interior to ask a civil judge to determine the administrators' possible liability for the conduct that led to the dissolution of the municipality.

The acceptance of the appeal therefore entails the temporary preclusion of the former directors from being eligible to vote, without prejudice to the fact that the decision may be subject to subsequent levels of judgment.

A sentence destined to cause discussion

The decision is particularly significant because it represents one of the first pronouncements following the dissolution of the Municipality of Marano due to mafia infiltration. On the political and administrative levels, the ruling strengthens the effects of the dissolution order adopted by the Government, while on the procedural level, the interested parties remain entitled to appeal.

Until the decision is reversed in subsequent proceedings, the declaration of ineligibility issued by the Court remains effective.