Italy’s Meloni Says Her Government Will Ban Burqas and Niqabs in Schools and Cap Foreign Students Per Class

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday, Sept. 20, that her government will bring a measure to the Cabinet that would ban burqas and niqabs in schools, cap the number of foreign students per class, and require parents of foreign students with “serious difficulties” integrating to learn Italian, according to Euronews and NBC News. The proposals have been announced, not enacted, and Meloni did not say what the cap would be. Critics, including a constitutional law professor, have questioned whether the plan is lawful.

Meloni spoke at a rally organized by Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party, Euronews reported. On the face veil, she said: "You must go to school with your face uncovered, and in Italy no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself," according to NBC News. On the cap, she said: "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," according to Euronews. Wanted in Rome reported that she also dismissed critics as people “who preach from their living rooms.”

The package has three parts: a ban on burqas and niqabs in schools, a legal limit on the number of foreign pupils per class, and a requirement that parents of students with “serious integration difficulties” learn Italian. Italy already has a non-binding guideline of 30 percent foreign students per class, set in 2010, according to Euronews and Wanted in Rome. Non-citizens make up 11.6 percent of Italian school enrollment, according to Fondazione ISMU research cited by NBC News. Euronews noted that if the cap is enacted, Italy would be the first European country with a statutory limit on foreign students per class, and that several European countries, including France and Belgium, already ban face coverings in public places.

Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara has pushed similar measures, according to Wanted in Rome. The announcement comes as the far-right party of Roberto Vannacci, Futuro Nazionale, presses for tougher migration policies ahead of national elections, Euronews reported.

Constitutional law professor Salvatore Curreri warned that the cap could conflict with Article 34 of Italy’s constitution, which says school is open to everyone, including foreign children. Angelo Bonelli of the Greens and Left Alliance accused Meloni of “chasing the neo-fascist right.” Teaching unions, led by Gianna Fracassi of FLC-CGIL, previously opposed similar proposals as a shift “from integration to assimilation,” Wanted in Rome reported. These are the views of individual critics; no court has ruled on the plan.

Meloni said the measure will “soon be presented to a Cabinet meeting,” according to NBC News. Wanted in Rome reported that the government had not yet scheduled it. In the coverage IF Daily reviewed, no bill text had been published, so key details, including the size of the cap, how the ban would be enforced and exactly which garments it covers, are not yet known. IF Daily will update this story as the proposal moves forward.