Chants against Neapolitans in Pontida. Fico: "Unacceptable." The League: "They don't represent us."

There's been a storm following the racist chants against Neapolitans—"Vesuvius erupts, all of Naples is destroyed"—sung by Northern League activists during the two-day rally in Pontida . Following the Five Star Movement's posts denouncing the protests, the Northern League distances itself from the insults aimed at residents of the Campania capital, voters who will vote in the regional elections on November 23 and 24: "Vulgar and stupid stadium chants from a few, who certainly don't represent the tens of thousands of people who were in Pontida from all over Italy and Campania," the party said in a statement.

This was followed by the announcement of the leader's next electoral appointment: " Matteo Salvini will be in Naples and Campania in the next few days together with administrators, entrepreneurs and citizens, to finally offer the people of Campania the chance for change after too many years of misgovernance by the left."

The welcome may not be the warmest, despite the Northern League's U-turn. For the Five Star Movement's candidate for regional president, Roberto Fico, "what happened in Pontida is unacceptable" and the "party, which represents so many institutional figures, has a duty to apologize."

Democratic MP Marco Sarraccino added: " The Pontida of 2025 is a veritable festival of hate. Hatred against those fleeing war and poverty. Hatred, complete with chants, against Southerners who, due to differentiated autonomy, will become second-class citizens by law."

Campanian senator Gianluca Cantalamessa of the League tries to counter: "What really offends Naples are the handouts and bribes from the citizen's income promoted by the 5 Star Movement or the clientelist policies of the Democratic Party with which it seeks to gain power, and certainly not a League that, among other things, supported the single ZES for the South and the 'Resto al Sud' measure, in order to create more and more jobs in the South."