«The square is ours, remove everything» . No sooner said than done. Better to obey the "masters" of the area, to avoid retaliation and harassment of customers. So one of the places in Piazza del Carmine , in Cagliari , had to give up placing the tables outdoors : a double insult, given that the incident dates back to the Covid period, when public land was free to occupy and indoor seats were limited .
Only one, however emblematic, of the many cases testifying to the frustration and sense of helplessness that the traders of the square , now a land of delinquency, experience every day. Among them there are those who prefer not to talk, "we are exasperated", and those who do so while remaining anonymous: "Among my colleagues", says the owner of one of the businesses, "some argue, perhaps rightly, that we argue more about the situation, fewer people arrive ». So they prefer to swallow it and go on, with the emergency that feeds day by day, between drug dealing in the light of the sun and continuous fights : «The two things are often connected: most of the time it is a matter of quarrels for territorial reasons , for the fear that someone might take away the drug dealing square from the other".
The feeling you breathe is that someone feels they are now the boss of the neighborhood: «Over time they have become more arrogant », continues one of the traders, «I can see it precisely from the way they treat us. And it's not just about non-EU citizens ». The situation, they say, has worsened in the last two years: « Since June 2021 the permanent garrison of the police has been removed . It was a deterrent, at least we didn't feel abandoned: it's a form of consideration, both for the exhibitors and for the residents. From this point of view, the prefect and the questore, and not so much the mayor, have responsibilities on private citizens that are not honored".
