In Naples there are saints, miracles and, apparently, even private audiences. Certainly, the Vatican is not there, but at the humblest Sansevero Chapel, for one day Angelo Bonelli experienced the advantages of a sort of secular and environmentalist pontificate.
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The scene, whispered by Dagospia, must have been almost liturgical. A deferential official approaches the honorable member of the Green-Left Alliance and whispers to him: “I’ll show you something that stays in your heart. Just for you.” Only the incense is missing. Then the doors of a place normally forbidden to visitors open, the artistic workshop of master Esposito. Closed to ordinary mortals, but evidently not to illustrious pilgrims and red popes.
And here the small Neapolitan paradox is born. Because Bonelli is the political leader who has been fighting privileges, rents, preferential lanes and special treatments for years. A mission he finds very noble, but only if it concerns others. When instead privilege knocks on his door, he does not find a stern censor opening it but a rather accommodating host.
First, in a not very proletarian way, he accepted some generous gifts from the museum shop, then he enjoyed the reverence, and finally the triumphant entrance with the whole delegation: ten people including adults and children. More than a private visit, a procession.
Francesco Emilio Borrelli, Neapolitan deputy of Avs and always at the forefront in the fight against privileges, reached by Libero downplays: “I was not with Angelo Bonelli because he was in Naples on a private visit. He told me he was recognized by the owner of a private museum who wanted to give his daughter a pencil. As for the visit to an area not open to the public, it is actually the private studio of an artist who wanted to show his works to Bonelli inside his own workshop.”
With circumlocutions, but it all seems considered a confirmation. And to think that Bonelli is normally used to saying no. No to drilling. No to regasification plants. No to large works. No to half the country. His Yes are only those aimed at the wealth tax. Let the rich go to hell, with their yachts and their Lamborghinis convinced that opulence can open all roads for them.
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They should learn from him, who manages to have doors opened with just the juxtaposition of hands. In front of a door closed to everyone and open only for him, his famous intransigent refusals have magically become enthusiastic: “Sure, thank you.”
That Bonelli is a little Mick Jagger around the Campanian capital is certified by the electoral results, one must admit. In the 2025 regional elections Avs collected 7.42% in the capital and just over 93,000 votes in the entire province. Respectable numbers, which make it the third most voted party. Well, not enough to justify honors as a head of state, no. Yet, judging by the reception received, it seems that someone mistook him for an ecological, welcoming, rich-eater pontiff, worthy of access to reserved rooms and privileged paths.
After all, it is a very Italian story. Privilege is always an abuse when it concerns others; when it concerns us it becomes a cultural opportunity, a gesture of courtesy, a nice exception. And so the tribune of the plebs, for at least an afternoon, was able to enjoy what is normally denied to ordinary faithful.
Moreover, the public employee who recognized him, quoted by Dagospia, was very clear and religiously rhetorical: “I’ll show you something that stays in your heart.” Mission accomplished. More difficult to try to understand what remained in the hearts of the visitors relegated outside. Surely rich. They should pay more taxes and keep quiet.
We receive and publish from lawyer Valerio Impellizzeri:
“The journalistic article published on June 14, 2026, titled “Bonelli’s caste tour in rooms closed to the public” reports incorrect information. Hon. Bonelli, together with his wife and minor daughter, visited the Veiled Christ at the San Severo Chapel in Naples. It is specified that the San Severo Chapel is a private structure and Hon. Bonelli had regularly booked the visit to the place. Subsequently, at the end of the visit, the owner of the San Severo Chapel greeted Hon. Bonelli and at the end of the conversation gave a pencil and a notebook to his daughter. Upon leaving the San Severo Chapel, Hon. Bonelli was introduced to the Neapolitan artist Lello Esposito, who led the family to his artistic workshop, a basement he owns, which is a private property of the artist, not a public space forbidden to ordinary mortals. Hon. Bonelli therefore did not enjoy any privilege.”
