ABSTRACT
The chapter offers an in-depth analysis of the crucial case of Ticino, Switzerland’s principal Italian-speaking canton. From being aligned with the French-speaking cantons as a pro-integration area, Ticino has progressively become the most Eurosceptic part of Switzerland by far. In accounting for Ticino’s singularity, the contribution stresses the importance of socio-economic factors as well as the role of regionalist and nationalist “political entrepreneurs” who have amplified and politicised the underlying conditions for their political ends. The chapter underlines the interaction between domestic centre–periphery relations and attitudes to European integration which is also a crucial issue in other parts of Europe, including the UK.
