“Solidarity with the students of Bari, that is not Taranto”. Thus in a note the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Taranto, Gianni Azzaro.
“One episode cannot erase the commitment that every citizen of Taranto is putting into the challenge of reviving the city. One episode cannot represent Taranto, a city that has rediscovered its vocation to welcome all kinds, to promote the values of sport, to the construction of a mature tourism model – underlines Azzaro – precisely this newfound maturity of ours must push us to show solidarity with those students from Bari who in Old City they experienced a parenthesis to forget, also thanks to the solidarity that many, all the people of Taranto, expressed towards them. The community has the necessary antibodies to isolate those who still understand the passion for sporting colors as the expression of a tribal feeling, doing a huge disservice to the noble history of the city’s fans.
If we have invested in tourism, if we have aimed to take on a role of reference as the Mediterranean capital of sport, it is only for those kids who still know how to experience the authenticity of a passion that is made of tradition, belonging, spontaneity. There is never malice when the support is inspired by these principles; there is a lot of it, too much, when the arrogance of marking the territory takes over.
This is why we will continue to believe in the intrinsic value of sport, not in its inferior version. We are not ashamed of what happened, we are instead proud of how the city distanced itself from a single, small and marginal episode. In this outcome we found the true nature of Taranto, our nature. And we will always be on that side.”
