Italy’s government is preparing new school measures, including a ban on niqabs. Meloni is facing competition from retired general Roberto Vannacci, who has called for tougher measures on migration, Euronews reports.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced that the government is preparing a bill that would ban burqas and niqabs in schools and introduce a limit on the number of foreign pupils in each class.
Several European countries, including France and Belgium, already ban face coverings in public places. Austria has also introduced restrictions in schools. Elsewhere, including Spain and Poland, freedom of conscience and religion is protected by the constitution.
Meloni said a package of measures will soon go before the Italian cabinet, including a ban on burqas and niqabs in schools, a requirement for parents of pupils facing “serious difficulties integrating” into the national school system to learn Italian, and a limit on places for foreign pupils.
Italy heads to the polls next year, with competition intensifying to the right of Meloni’s party following the entry of retired general Roberto Vannacci, who has called for even tougher measures. Migration is a highly political and divisive issue in Italy.
“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,” she said during a rally organised by Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party.
“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.”
