Italy is preparing a package of measures that would ban face coverings in schools and limit the number of foreign students who can be enrolled in individual classes, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced.
Meloni made the announcement on Sunday, September 20, during a youth event organised by Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party. She said the proposed measures would soon be presented to the Italian cabinet for consideration.
The package would include a ban on burqas and niqabs in schools, as well as a requirement for parents of pupils experiencing “serious difficulties integrating” into Italy’s national school system to learn Italian. The government also plans to introduce limits on places available to foreign pupils.
“It is unacceptable that in an Italian classroom the children who end up feeling pushed into a corner are Italian children because they have become the minority. That cannot be allowed,” Meloni said during the rally.
“Calling all this integration is yet another lie, a convenient lie for those who live off ideology, for those who preach to us from their living rooms and then send their own children to schools where this problem does not exist.”
The proposed restrictions come as several European countries have adopted measures concerning face coverings. France and Belgium, for example, prohibit face coverings in public places, while Austria has introduced restrictions affecting face coverings in schools. In other European countries, including Spain and Poland, constitutional protections cover freedom of conscience and religion.
