Italy is preparing a measure that would introduce a legal limit on the number of foreign students in schools and ban the burqa and hijab there, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said.
“Italian children cannot feel like a minority in the classroom,” Meloni said at Fenix, a national youth festival organised by her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party’s youth group.
“It’s unthinkable that in an Italian classroom, Italian children feel cornered because they’ve become the minority. It can’t be done,” she added, according to ANSA News Agency.
She further said her government would ban the burqa and hijab in schools.
Meloni said parents of foreign students struggling to integrate into the school system would also be required to learn Italian.
Meloni said the measure is expected to be submitted to the Council of Ministers soon.
Last year, Italy’s right-wing populist Lega party proposed a ban on veils that conceal the face in public spaces.
In 2023, the top European Union court ruled that public authorities in member states can prohibit employees from wearing signs of religious belief, such as a headscarf.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said that a policy of strict neutrality that was intended to establish a neutral administrative environment may be regarded as being objectively justified by a legitimate aim.
It added that another public administration would also be justified if it decided to authorise, in a general and indiscriminate manner, the wearing of visible signs of belief.
The court said authorities in member states had a margin of discretion in designing the neutrality of public service they intended to promote.
However, this objective must be pursued in a consistent and systematic manner and measures must be limited to what is strictly necessary, the court said.
