According to the mainstream Italian daily Corriere della Sera (30 March): “There is an increasing risk that a social powder keg will be created in the South [of Italy].
“In Campania, as in Sicily, episodes of night thefts or small assaults in supermarkets are multiplying...” Police have now been stationed outside supermarkets in some areas.
In Naples, an exhibition hall has been converted to a food aid centre. On 31 March the city of Palermo set up an online facility to register for food aid, and it was quickly flooded.
In Italy’s South, many people have depended on insecure jobs, petty trade, or the “black economy”. The far-right “Brothers of Italy” continues to rise in opinion polls (to 13% now), though not faster than pre-pandemic.
The left must fight for social support for the worst off, and against the xenophobic right.