In a small town in the north of Italy, fog and humidity make parmesan cheese and ham tasty. But most of the time it smells of a tomato sauce factory and pigs. I hated life there. When I go back to my hometown, I argue with my brother who has joined a neo-fascist group, I argue with my farmer friends spraying glyphosate on their fields and with acquaintances who have transformed the historically communist region into a right-wing stronghold.
As a younger sibling, I always tended to look up to my older brother. But we had different life opportunities and ended up in very different places. One in Brussels supporting the idea of an open democratic Europe and the other rejecting the establishment and fearing the loss of identity over the arrival of immigrants to Europe.
When European votes electing the next European Parliament are counted on Sunday, the Italian far-right party League is expected to be the first party in Italy with more than 30%, it is likely to be the largest party in a number of seats – 25 and to compete to create the third largest group in the assembly.
