«It is dangerous to leave the weak dejected, the corruption of the weak is the poison of the strong», wrote Georges Bernanos in “The Great Cemeteries under the Moon”. Corrupted and bewitched, the weak quickly turn into tyrants, putting people of good will to the test. In the long run, blow after blow, even the strong can pull out the oarsand, in a sort of pessimistic resignation, being sucked into private life. It is necessary to identify the signs in time, when they can still be deliberately confused with simple acts of more or less adult bullying. On May 29, in Andria, in a meeting with thousands of students in the sports hall, in the presence of the local police commissioner, the city mayor, the superintendent, dozens of men and women from the police forces and institutions, I recalled this very principle: There is, in some respects, no difference between a bully and a Camorra member. Both are bullies and cowards.
In front of the strongest they are silent, they flatter, they bow, but as soon as they have to deal with a weaker person, they bring out their arrogance: they threaten, intimidate, humiliate, beat. The Camorra then moves forward, wants and demands what does not belong to him, covets other people’s goods, the power that no one has ever granted him. We have plenty of Camorra members and acts of Camorra. They are people with unbearable ways of doing and thinking. They do everything to prevent our beautiful land from Campania from taking off. They want everything, in return they don’t want and don’t know how to give anything good.
In Quarto, in the Neapolitan area, a few days ago, after years of neglect, a silo of the former Camorra cement factory was demolished. A confiscated asset that returns to its rightful owners. Legality takes over. The mayor, Antonio Sabino, on the front line, is already thinking about the future. With him the citizens begin to hope again. And behold, punctual as dawn, they arrive the first threats on social media. Among these the most horrible says: “I’ll put you inside the walls”. The words were not written randomly. «Inside the walls», means in the concrete. Memory takes on the task of digging up horrifying facts that we would have liked to forget forever. In concrete. In the wells. White lupara. Dissolved in acid. When not even the bodies were to be found. The Camorra were capable of this and more. They are not resigned to giving up their weapons. They feel that good. If they can’t get it back, well let them sink into neglect, into a garbage dump. Never in a playground, in a municipal park, in a theater. This is an affront. It’s not possible. We won’t allow it. The mayor of Quarto immediately received the solidarity of the prefect of Naples, Michele Di Bari, and that of the president of the metropolitan city, Gaetano Manfredi. In just a few hours, that of politicians from the various sides is added. There are no, and must not be, divisions against the Camorra dictated by ideological visions. Against the Camorra we need to be united and firm. The Church, which has always been on the front line in this battle against organized and lying evil, takes the field. Always on the side of legality. Always next to those who are trampled on. Always in defense of the little ones. «The mafia is a human fact and like all human facts it has a beginning, a date of birth, and it will also have an end», said Giovanni Falcone. We have always believed it. Everyone next to the mayor of Quarto, therefore. No one dares downplay the scope of these threats. They are more dangerous than one might naively believe. They are the fuse to be defused before it explodes. Come on, mayor. We are with you, you cannot remain alone. To the students of Andria, on May 29, speaking of Falcone, Borsellino, Don Puglisi, Don Diana, I said: «A red poppy in the middle of a green lawn, even from afar, is easily identifiable. If someone wants to cut it off, they can do so very easily. A red poppy in an endless field of red poppies will be impossible to spot. A poppy among poppies, where each one acts as an escort and guardian of the other. Everyone around the mayor of Quarto, so that the Camorra is convinced that things have changed. No longer a fearful people who do not see, do not hear, do not speak. But a population of honest and courageous people who reclaim their freedom.
