VIGEVANO: A local election in an industrial city in northern Italy is exposing differences over immigration between governing coalition parties and showing how the country’s rapidly changing social fabric is shaping politics.

Surrounded by factories and rice paddies, Vigevano is a city of 62,000 people where 15% of the population is foreign, including many people from Egypt and Romania.

Many more are naturalised Italians and second-generation immigrants.

Once a Communist Party bastion, the city is held by the League, a far-right junior partner in Italy’s ruling coalition whose leader Matteo Salvini has said citizenship should be revoked for second-generation immigrants who commit crimes.

But the League’s mayoral candidate, Riccardo Ghia, a jeweller, made headlines last month when he put two Muslim candidates on his list of prospective councillors — with an eye to attracting votes from immigrant communities.

One of the two, Italian-Egyptian Hagar Haggag, 20, said she had received a slew of insults and threats since her candidacy was announced.

She attributed the virulent reaction mainly to the fact that she wears a headscarf.

She told AFP she had “never felt racism” in the local section of the party, pointing out that the former League mayor had allowed a Muslim prayer hall to open in a disused hangar in 2022.

Haggag said she was also running because she wanted to “put an end to the left-wing cliche that Muslim women are ignorant”.

She is studying diplomacy and is considering a political career beyond Vigevano — maybe even in Egypt.

The other candidate, Ibrahim Hussein, is a spokesman for the local prayer hall who presented his bid “in the name of Allah”.

Hussein wrote on Facebook that he chose to be a candidate for the League because he sees himself as “a real example of integration”.

On the last day of campaigning on Friday in Vigevano’s majestic central square, Ghia said he “does not look at whether people are Muslim or Buddhist”, adding that whoever “respects the rules is a citizen with full rights”.

Divisions between parties

Italy is gearing up for national elections next year in a country that is becoming ever more multi-ethnic and where the political clout of second-generation immigrants is growing.

The national leadership of the League said it was “distancing” itself from the candidates in Vigevano, which voted on Sunday and Monday.

But Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is supporting the candidates.

Forza Italia, another coalition partner, is more open on immigration and integration but is supporting a different mayoral list.

The divisions could be a boon for Roberto Vannacci, a former general who quit the League to set up a more radical far-right party called Futuro Nazionale (National Future).

Vannacci was in Vigevano on May 17 for a speech laden with anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The speech came a day after a young Italian man of Moroccan heritage with mental health problems rammed his car into pedestrians in the city of Modena, injuring eight people.

The local candidate supported by National Future, lawyer Furio Suvilla, says his programme is focused on security.

He has called for the army to intervene against groups of young people who gather around the station and wants the Muslim hall closed.

He said he thinks he could “pick up quite a few League voters”.

‘Still a foreigner’

Candidates with foreign origins still remain relatively rare in Italian elections, where immigration has been more recent than in France or Germany, said sociologist Maurizio Ambrosini from Milan’s Statale university.

Several right-wing parties “are trying to attract candidates with immigrant origins,” the sociologist said, adding that “many naturalised migrants tend towards the right”.

Sabrine Hamrouni, 23, a health sector worker, is also a candidate in Vigevano but for the centre-left. She said she thinks divisions on the right could help boost her campaign.

Hamrouni’s father moved from Tunisia to Vigevano in the 1990s to work in construction.

“I was born here. I have always lived here but I am still a foreigner,” the candidate said.

She said she wants to make Vigevano “a beautiful city — it will take a long time but I am willing to put in that time”.

MAKKAH: Over 1.5 million Muslims began filling a vast tent city in the holy city of Makkah on Monday for an annual Hajj pilgrimage carried out against the backdrop of hopes for an end to the war in the Middle East.

The white-robed pilgrims on buses or on foot arrived at the sprawling encampment in Mina after performing the “tawaf” — walking seven times around the Kaaba at Makkah’s Grand Mosque.

The start of the Hajj came as US President Donald Trump continued to send mixed signals over a possible agreement to extend an uneasy ceasefire with Iran and a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Despite the uncertainty triggered by the conflict, Saudi officials noted over the weekend that more pilgrims had travelled from abroad to participate in this year’s Hajj than in 2025.

But, amid the spiritual euphoria experienced by the pilgrims in the days ahead of the Hajj, authorities in the kingdom signalled their readiness.

A video posted on social media by the Saudi defence ministry showed advanced air defence batteries positioned on the outskirts of Makkah.

“The air defence forces are responsible for protecting the skies over the holy sites and dealing with all aerial threats, ensuring the safety and peace of mind of the guests,” read the post.

Many pilgrims who spoke to AFP expressed their hope that peace would prevail soon.

“The war in Iran has affected the entire world. Nobody wants wars or harm to countries and peoples,” said Mohammed Chahada, an Egyptian in his 50s, as he walked through a crowd exiting the Grand Mosque.

Rituals

The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be performed at least once by all Muslims with the means.

During the Hajj, men wear a seamless shroud-like white garment that emphasises unity among believers regardless of their social status or nationality.

Women must wear loose dresses, exposing only their faces and hands.

The first ritual of the Hajj requires walking seven times around the Kaaba. Pilgrims next walk seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwa.

They then move on to Mina, around five kilometres (three miles) away, ahead of the main rite of the pilgrimage at Mount Arafat.

On Tuesday, the climax of the Hajj is the gathering on Mount Arafat, about 10 kilometres from Mina, where Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) delivered his final sermon.

The arduous, outdoor pilgrimage will be held against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions but also under punishing heat, with temperatures forecast to top 40°C for much of the week.

Despite the heat and the uncertainty over the war, pilgrims in Makkah were ecstatic.

“I have wanted to perform the pilgrimage my entire life, for 40 or 50 years,” said Jreish Mohammed, a 68-year-old decked out in the traditional attire from his native Morocco.

“And this year, my dream came true.”

• Trump says informed representatives not to rush into deal.
• Tasnim says key clauses of possible deal remained “unresolved”.
• Talks on nuclear issue deferred for 60 days after any deal: Iran.

US President Donald Trump tempered expectations of a Middle East deal by saying he had told his negotiators not to “rush,” even after both Tehran and Washington signalled progress towards an agreement to end the war.

The United States and Iran have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while mediators push for a negotiated settlement, although Iran has imposed controls on Gulf shipping and the US has blockaded Iran’s ports.

The war erupted after the United States and Israel attacked the Islamic Republic on February 28, and Iran responded with missile and drone attacks across the region.

“I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” Trump said in a social media post Sunday.

“The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed,” he added.

Earlier, Trump had posted that the deal “has been largely negotiated, subject to finali[s]ation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other Countries.”

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said Sunday its information was that key clauses of a possible agreement remained “unresolved at this time,” including the issue of frozen Iranian assets.

Nuclear issue

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, told The New York Times that an agreement with Iran had garnered regional support but a nuclear deal couldn’t be achieved “in 72 hours on the back of a napkin.”

“Right now, we have seven or eight countries in the region that are endorsing this approach, and we´re prepared to move forward on this approach,” he said.

Earlier, Rubio had said a bargain could be struck to end the regional war as early as Sunday.

But Trump again reined in expectations, posting on social media that “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one” and adding: “It isn’t even fully negotiated yet.”

Staunch Trump ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he and the president had agreed that “any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear threat entirely.”

‘Lasting peace’

Iranian officials confirmed the existence of a draft agreement but stressed that — despite the long-standing US demand for an end to its uranium enrichment — talks on the issue of Iran’s contested nuclear programme have been deferred for 60 days after any deal.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television that Tehran was “still prepared to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons,” but it was unclear if this promise would be enshrined in the text of the deal.

According to Iran’s Fars news agency, “sanctions on oil, gas, petrochemicals and their derivatives would be temporarily lifted during the negotiation period so that Iran can freely sell its products.”

Leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as representatives from Turkey and Pakistan, joined a call with Trump to discuss the deal on Saturday.

Pakistan, which mediated historic face-to-face negotiations between US and Iranian delegations in April, hopes to host another round of talks “very soon,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.

He said Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir, who visited Tehran on Friday and Saturday, also joined the call, which “provided a useful opportunity… to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region.”