The Repentance of Francesco Schiavone: A Turning Point for the Land of Fires

The collaboration of Francesco Schiavone, known as Sandokan, is good news but it is even more important that he reveals the many secrets, the protagonists, and the causes of so much pain, violence, and death that condemned the population of the 'Land of Fires' in the provinces of Naples and Caserta to live in a territory tormented by illegal waste and criminal concrete. So, in a joint statement, Stefano Ciafani and Mariateresa Imparato, respectively national and regional president of Legambiente. He is aware of the truths about the pact between politics, entrepreneurship, and crime not only in Campania, a pact on which since the early '90s the eco-mafias have thrived, spread like a virus driven by cross-sectional interests in which environmental, economic, and organized crime increasingly intertwine in a perfect triangle, they emphasize. He was mayor in 1994, when the Casalesi clan reached its peak of cruelty by killing in his parish Don Peppe Diana, and he is also today, that could begin to close a cycle with the repentance of Francesco Sandokan Schiavone. Renato Natale, mayor of Casal di Principe, almost breathes a sigh of relief but still takes the news of Sandokan's collaboration with justice with caution. 'Obviously, I am happy - says Natale - but the repentance can really be a positive circumstance for the territory if Schiavone will shed light, and I sincerely hope so, on a dark period of our history, on some unresolved murders, on the connections with local and especially national politics, because thanks to the many supports they enjoyed, the clan was able to dominate the territory uncontested; and on the issue of buried waste.' The story of the mayor. Natale was mayor in 1994 for nine months, sent home by his own majority because he was bothering the clans, then he became mayor again in 2014 and was the protagonist of the redemption of Casal di Principe, sealed by the visit of the Head of State Sergio Mattarella on March 21 last year; in a few months Natale will conclude his second term, and the repentance of Sandokan represents a bit the closing of a circle. 'I don't know if it will be so, because there are other bosses who have not yet repented, but certainly the statements of Schiavone could be useful for us to identify those still hidden corners, that may represent a future danger for our people, for our economy and our Institutions,' concludes Natale.