“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.”
Italy is set to join a growing European push to tighten immigration and integration rules, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni proposing to ban burqas and niqabs in schools and limit the number of foreign students in classrooms.
At a raucous gathering of her party’s young Right-wing supporters, Meloni announced plans to introduce the legislation as Western countries grapple with Islam’s growing cultural and political influence. The measures would also require Italian-language lessons for parents of foreign students facing “serious difficulties integrating into the school system,” according to the Associated Press.
“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 at the Gioventù Nazionale national festival in Rome. “It is the only serious way to welcome them.”
Meloni, who is leading Italy’s longest-serving government since World War Two, said the proposed ban would cover the burqa, a full-body garment that covers the face, and the niqab, a face veil that leaves only th