Meloni plans to ban burqas and niqabs in Italian schools, and cap foreign students in classrooms

ROME (AP) — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Sunday she’ll soon introduce a measure to her government that would cap the number of foreign students in classrooms and ban the wearing of burqas and niqabs in schools.

Meloni told the youth wing of her nationalist conservative Brothers of Italy party that the measure would also make Italian language lessons compulsory for parents of foreign students having “serious difficulties integrating into the school system.”

“For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, understand our culture, and respect our rules,” she said to a standing ovation at the Gioventù Nazionale national festival in Rome. “It is the only serious way to welcome them.”

Meloni specifically referred to a ban on the burqa, an all-covering dress worn by some Muslim women, and the niqab, the veil worn by the most conservative Muslim women, in which, at most, only the eyes show. But Meloni didn’t mention the hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

Once approved by the government, the measure would need parliamentary approval within 60 days to pass into law.

Meloni, who has political roots in the far-right, has consistently been hawkish on migration. But she has evolved politically over her tenure as prime minister, shifting from a nationalist outlier to an establishment figure among European Union politicians.

However, she’s also keen to boost her popularity before a general election next year and is introducing a string of policies that achieve that aim, including an exemption from a hated property tax on small- and medium-sized cars and scooters.

Earlier this month, Meloni’s conservative administration became Italy’s longest-serving uninterrupted government since World War II.

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