It's been forty years since Italy legalized the abortion. In 1978 the law was passed 194, which allows women to freely terminate pregnancy during the first trimester, and also later if the health of the fetus or the mother is at risk. Despite the strong influence that the Catholic Church still exercises in this country, few had dared to publicly question a measure defended tooth and nail by the most progressive sectors.

but now, the new conservative winds that blow around the world also do so in Italy. With the far-right League at the head of the Executive, some town councils are taking advantage to put the 194 in the spotlight. Verona, in the conservative Veneto region, seems to be at the forefront. The city of Romeo and Juliet, of 250.000 inhabitants, In October, she became the first in the country to officially declare herself “in favor of life.”.

That is to say, that the City Council, governed by a right-wing list, approved a motion that, In addition to this statement, It included donating funds to anti-abortion initiatives by private and church organizations and launching a regional project to convince pregnant women to give up their unwanted children for adoption.. The measure caused a strong controversy internally after the group leader of the Democratic Party (center left) at the Town Hall, Carla Padovani, decided to join the League citing moral reasons.

The anti-abortion crusade has not stayed in Verona. Other important town councils in Italy, like those of Rome, Milan and Ferrara, They began discussing similar motions within weeks

“There is a lack of culture of life. In a historical period in which Italy is in a terrifying demographic decline because there is no generational change, If we don't have more children it means there is no hope. “Every help to a mother who welcomes a life is money well spent for society.”, says the author of the motion in his office at City Hall, Alberto Zelger, League councilor. She wears a gold pin on her lapel with the imprint of a fetus between ten and eleven weeks old to show that at this stage of pregnancy, The fetus is “a life for all intents and purposes”.

The anti-abortion crusade has not stayed in Verona. Other important town councils in Italy, like those of Rome, Milan and Ferrara, They began discussing similar motions within weeks. According to Zelger, has received numerous emails from other local representatives who want to reproduce their measure.

The Veronese league player assures that he feels supported by the Italian doctors. Although practicing an abortion is totally legal, Women in this country do not have it easy to terminate pregnancy because the law also protects the right to conscientious objection.. Now, more than 70% of Italian gynecologists declare themselves opposed to performing abortions for moral or religious reasons. The percentage grows notably in the religious south of Italy, where in some areas the objectors reach the 90%. In it 2017, a Molise (on) there was only one doctor, Michele Mariano, willing to perform abortions. He was in charge of more than 400 a year alone. Data from the Italian Ministry of Health shows that the number of abortions in Italy has decreased greatly in the last decade. Yes in the 2004 were practiced almost 140.000, in it 2016 were something more than 86.000. But a group of doctors led by Dr. Silvana Agatone, president of the Free Italian Association of Gynecologists for Law Enforcement 194/78, They question these figures because they claim that in reality there are many more abortions, that are practiced clandestinely, and ask the Government to guarantee compliance with the law.

In Verona, besides, Some Catholic anti-abortion associations are beginning to organize events to expand their ideas with money and means to do so.. One of them is Christus Rex, a local group connected to Forza Nuova neo-fascists campaigning for the return of the “traditional” family. “We collaborate with the forces that think like us. Today they are the populists and sovereignists”, asserts its president, Matthew Castagna. “The only thing the motion does is support the culture of life against the culture of death.”. I am satisfied that in Verona a debate has started that has spread to other cities to defend the culture of life. “What was once the Middle Ages is once again true progress.”, continues Castagna, who says he won't be completely happy until the 194 has been eliminated.

Veronese Catholic conservatives have a good ally. The Italian Family Minister supports them, Lorenzo Fontana, who is also from Verona, and reducing the number of abortions has been set as a priority in the next four years. The League considers that one of the causes of the low birth rate in Italy (of 1,3 children per woman, same as in Spain) it's abortion. “In many cases,” Fontana said, “women decide not to have children due to economic concerns.”. I would like the State to help these women understand that, when in doubt, "The best thing is to have a child.".

Minister Fontana is the same one who in his first days at the head of the Ministry assured that gay families did not exist, that the aid would only be for traditional couples and that immigration does not solve the Italian demographic problem, because “with the social costs of integration it would be better to finance the demographic increase already integrated”. The leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, had to come out to distance himself from the criticism received. But Fontana is not far away. He formed with him in the corridors of the European Parliament,and they are so friends, they assure in Verona, that Salvini was even his wedding witness.

At the national level, The League is not openly raising its far-right agenda on social issues because it is tied hand and foot by the Government contract it sealed with the Movement. 5 stars (M5E). “It seems that Verona has returned to the Middle Ages”, Mattia Fantinati complained, a Veronese grillino deputy after the approval of the motion. At the moment, Salvini has focused on the battle against immigration, which is giving much more immediate electoral results. But that doesn't mean they've stopped fighting this war. At one of the most famous campaign rallies in Milan, the Minister of the Interior swore with a rosary in his hand. On their social networks, asks that schools install the nativity scene and put up crucifixes to preserve the Italian Catholic tradition. Senator Simone Pillon also presented a bill to reform family law for divorced couples and child custody that angered feminists because, among other things, They believe that it attacks the member of the couple with less income, usually women, in a country where the wage gap is still very notable. The fear among progressives is that if the current Government were to fall and the League were to win hypothetical new elections with the support of the other right-wing parties, would have a free hand to push the country back on these issues as well.

“This motion does not go against Law 194”, Zelger points out.. “But if you ask me my opinion, I think it is a deeply unjust law because it makes the rights of the strongest prevail over the weakest.. "It's a carnage.", underlines. Now he is very satisfied because the city will host the next World Congress of Families in March, in which Salvini has already announced his presence. “The motion is a great letter of introduction”, the councilor smiles.

Verona, in addition to having inspired William Shakespeare's greatest love story, It is one of the cities where the Italian extreme right has always left a deeper mark. It was the bastion of the Gestapo in Italy and the place where Benito Mussolini decided to reconvert his fascist party into 1943. Also in the seventies and eighties, the city was a hotbed for far-right terrorists, including neo-nazis Ludwig. The city's football club, the Hellas Verona (in second division), It has earned a bad reputation from some of its fans in the cheering stands on the south curve., who have come to sing songs praising Hitler.

“It is the laboratory of the extreme right”, point Giulia, an activist from the feminist association Non Una Di Meno, who prefers not to reveal his last name. “The League has always worked the most conservative Catholic battles here. Prepare all these fronts so that they later reach the national level. Unfortunately, “The woman’s body has also become a political battle.”, explains.

Non Una Di Meno is one of the feminist groups that have been raising their voices for months in Italy to raise awareness that steps cannot be taken back even at the local level.. In Verona, the day the City Council approved the anti-abortion motion, About twenty activists from this group dressed in the red and white uniform inspired by The Handmaid's Tale, the Margaret Atwood, a dystopia that imagines a society without freedoms in which the role of women is reduced to giving birth. The photograph of them on the upper floor of the City Hall while the councilors declared the city “pro-life” was in all the Italian newspapers.. Feminists later joined in a massive march in Verona, and they have also staged rallies throughout Italy to protest against Senator Pillon's initiative to reform the divorce law..

“The problem is that before these things happened but they were not relevant. Now yes, and the political class does not see that it can do considerable damage to the city. “A homosexual student will think twice before applying for his Erasmus here.”, laments the young engineer Tommaso Ferrari, that in this legislature he was elected to the City Council by a list of center-left.

Ferrari, before the visit of a foreign journalist, does not want to miss the opportunity to show that Verona is not just a conservative city. While the anti-abortion motion resounds at the national level, dozens of young people from Veronese have been mobilizing for years with small non-partisan initiatives to take back the reins of the city. The most graphic example is found in Veronetta, a neighborhood on the other side of the Adige River that until very few years ago had a very bad reputation. It was the place where much of the immigration was concentrated., and also where Salvini went to criticize that “Italians are a minority in their own homes”.

But in recent years young people have taken over the neighborhood to relaunch it with new stores. Not in vain is this where the university is located. Also here, fifteen minutes walk from the historic center, The first hostel for young travelers opened six months ago. “It is a multiethnic neighborhood that is being revalued. The bad reputation comes from the nineties, But we haven't had any problems.", says one of its owners, Matteo Sachetti. “They paint Veronetta as the dangerous neighborhood, when it is the most alive in the city”, insists Ferrari.

In an ethnic cafe in Veronetta a group of young people gather to tell their initiatives to change the city's fame. For example, Alvise Trincanato, of 29 years, presides over an association that organizes events in unknown urban spaces, such as concerts or fine arts activities with volunteers. Matteo, that doesn't mean his last name, has created a portal to advertise events for young people and promote areas beyond the historic center. In the same Veronetta, Mattia Tramonti and Serena Realti, both of 32 years, They have started a cycle of cultural events in an abandoned garden.

“The problem is that it is a provincial city, in which there are too many prejudices and labels”, highlights Trincanato. Most of his friends have gone to other larger cities or abroad., but they fight so they can return. The two souls of Verona, at the moment, live together in peace.