Italy's Giorgia Meloni wants to ban burqas and niqabs in schools and cap foreign pupils per class. Integration policy, or discrimination dressed up as school reform?
The plan also adds a language requirement for parents of struggling students. Meloni says it stops Italian children being "pushed into a corner" as a minority in their own classrooms; a constitutional law professor warns it could breach Italy's guarantee of school access for all children, and a Green MP accused her of "chasing the neo-fascist right." Italy already caps foreign pupils at 30% per class under a loosely enforced 2010 rule.
What happened
Meloni announced a government bill on Sept 20, 2026 that would ban burqas and niqabs in schools, require parents of children with "serious difficulties integrating" to learn Italian, and formalize a stricter cap on foreign students per classroom — building on a loosely-enforced 2010 rule that already caps foreign pupils at 30%. If passed, Italy would be the first EU country to enforce a classroom cap like this in law.
Why people disagree
Supporters, including allies in Meloni's coalition, say Italian children are being marginalized in classrooms where they've become a minority and that integration rules are overdue. Critics — including a constitutional law professor who warns the bill could violate Italy's constitutional guarantee of school access for all children — say it targets a religious minority, and a Green MP called it a distraction from real problems like low teacher pay.
What's still unclear
Whether the bill passes as written, survives a constitutional challenge, or is actually enforced any more consistently than the existing 30% rule has been.
Sources
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