Premier Giorgia Meloni said yesterday she went to Caivano to show the State’s presence. The town near Naples is where two young cousins were gang raped in July.
Caivano is a mafia crime and drug ridden town near Naples. PM Meloni was invited to the town by the local priest following the emergence of the gang rape of two young cousins, aged 10 and 12. She had received death threats ahead of her visit.
“We are here to show solidarity with innocent victims but also to demonstrate the serious, authoritative, constant presence of the State, which has not been sufficiently perceived and perhaps not sufficiently present in territories like this one,” she said after chairing a public order meeting in a local school.
“I think that a serious state and a courageous politician must put themselves out there for the difficult things to be solved by taking full responsibility for them.
“We are not here just for the necessary condemnation and solidarity. We came here to say that we are showing up, putting ourselves out there”.
Mafia presence in Caivano
The Neapolitan Camorra mafia controls rackets in the area, which has been ravaged by the Campanian Mob’s toxic waste fires.
Nine years ago, in 2014, Caivano first gained shocked headlines after a six-year-old girl, Fortuna Loffredo, was serially abused and then murdered. She was thrown from the eighth floor of an apartment block in Parco Verde. This is the same area where the recent gang rape allegedly occurred.
“The main message that we want to give is that there must be no criminal enclaves. And it is a message that we give here, but the Parco Verde (Green Park) of Caivano is not the only territory that is in these conditions: there are many territories that are in these and the message is addressed to the many Caivanos of Italy”.
The Neapolitan Camorra mafia controls rackets in the area, which has been ravaged by the Campanian Mob’s toxic waste fires.
Meloni meets Caivano Priest
Giorgia Meloni met with parish priest Don Maurizio Patriciello and the Bishop of Aversa, Monsignor Angelo Spinillo.
Crowds greeted her arrival at the church of San Paolo Apostolo in Parco Verde with shouts of “Giorgia, Giorgia!”. The meeting lasted 40 minutes. Subsequently, the premier attended a meeting of law and order officials at the local Francesco Morano high school.
At the school Meloni addressed the issue of low school attendance. She stated laws must be bolstered to force families to send their children to school. Caivano has one of the biggest drop-out rates in Italy. Youngsters are also often employed by drugs gangs.
“There are important norms against dropping out of school, but they must be strengthened in order to fight this phenomenon,” she said. “School attendance is compulsory but the sanctions for those families that decide not to send their kids to school are not sufficient.”
