Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government will introduce legislation limiting the number of foreign students in classrooms while banning full face coverings in schools.
The proposal places integration, classroom demographics, and gender equality at the center of her latest immigration push, as reported by Breitbart.
Meloni announced the plan Sunday during an appearance at Fenix, the annual national youth festival organized by Gioventù Nazionale. The organization is the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party.
Speaking to student supporters, Meloni said Italian children should not be made to feel like a minority inside their own classrooms.
She presented the issue as one requiring action from the national government.
“It’s unthinkable that in an Italian classroom, Italian children feel cornered because they’ve become the minority. It can’t be done,” Meloni said, according to Corriere della Sera.
The Italian premier said her Council of Ministers would “soon introduce a law on the maximum number of foreign students in classes.”
The legislation would establish a limit rather than leaving classroom numbers unrestricted.
Meloni said the measure would be accompanied by a “requirement” for parents of foreign students struggling to integrate to learn Italian.
Her government also intends to use the legislation to prohibit burqas and niqabs in schools.
The prime minister described the prohibition on full face coverings as a “question of civilisation”.
She linked the policy directly to expectations for students attending school in Italy and to equality between men and women.
“We go to school with our faces uncovered, and in Italy, no one, in the name of a real or presumed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide. Gender equality is non-negotiable,” Meloni added.
The announcement comes as Meloni appears intent on strengthening her immigration position before next year’s elections.
She recently earned the distinction of leading the longest-serving government in postwar Italy.
Illegal immigration along the Mediterranean boat route has dropped considerably during Meloni’s tenure.
Even so, critics have accused her of failing to match the tough rhetoric she used during the 2022 election.
During that campaign, Meloni floated the idea of deploying the Navy to prevent people smugglers and open-border nongovernmental organization boats from operating in the region.
Her government has instead concentrated on building international consensus through the European Union.
That approach has included negotiations with Egypt and Tunisia aimed at cracking down on human trafficking groups operating in those countries.
The proposed cooperation has involved favorable trade terms in exchange for stronger action against the trafficking networks.
Meloni’s government has also been at the forefront of efforts to create asylum centers in third countries.
Such centers would allow illegal migrants to be removed from European Union soil immediately instead of remaining there while asylum claims are processed.
Rome attempted to establish that type of arrangement with Albania, but Meloni’s effort was blocked by legal challenges in Italy and at the European Union level.
Over the summer, her party in the European Parliament led efforts to provide a legal basis for the proposal.
Meloni is currently working with Denmark’s Mette Freidrickson and several other European Union member states to establish the first such center.
The partnership represents the latest stage of her effort to move migrant processing beyond European Union territory.
At home, Meloni continues to face pressure from the right. Former Italian Army general Roberto Vannacci has established the Futuro Nazionale party and is campaigning on a strict remigration platform.
Vannacci responded to Meloni’s classroom and face-covering measures by saying he “absolutely agrees” with them. He added, however, that they should have “come years ago.”
