Italy’s right-wing government has approved a decree banning the burqa and niqab in the country’s schools and capping the share of foreign pupils in each classroom at 30%, a move opponents say is aimed at countering a rising far-right rival ahead of next year’s general election.
What the decree says
Italy’s cabinet on Thursday approved a draft decree that introduces a 30% cap on the number of pupils without Italian citizenship or with a poor command of Italian in each classroom, starting from the 2027-28 school year. The rules also ban face coverings, including the burqa and niqab, in schools, with fines of up to €1,000 (roughly $1,140) for anyone entering school premises with their face covered.
The cap applies differently across school levels. In primary schools it will cover non-Italian citizens who were not born in Italy or who attended fewer than two years of nursery school. In secondary schools, it applies to students without Italian citizenship who have not completed three years in the country’s school system. If a school exceeds the threshold, education officials will have to move students to nearby schools — though the decree does not specify exactly how that process will work.
Crucially, the veil ban does not apply to the hijab, because that head covering leaves the face visible. It targets the burqa, which covers the entire body and face, and the niqab, which covers the face while leaving only the eyes visible.
The decree also requires parents of foreign students with serious integration difficulties to attend free Italian lessons, and says social services will be called in when a child seriously struggles to integrate at school.
A ban framed as gender equality
Meloni has framed both measures as tools for integration rather than exclusion. “These are common-sense measures that do not divide people, but help foster genuine integration,” she posted on X after the cabinet approved the measures. Announcing the plans on Sunday at a youth festival of her Brothers of Italy party, 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.”
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, from the right-wing Lega party, said the classroom limit is “purely linguistic” rather than based on citizenship, aimed at avoiding what he called “ghetto classes” where inadequate language skills hinder educational progress. Members of the ruling coalition describe face coverings as symbols of Islamist oppression and a lack of respect for women’s dignity.
If fully implemented, the ban would align Italy with European nations like France, Belgium, and Austria, which already restrict full-face veils in public spaces or educational institutions.
The politics behind the move
The timing is no accident. Meloni is grappling with the rise of National Future, a hard-right party founded in February by former army general Roberto Vannacci that is already polling at around 8%, while surveys show her coalition trailing the centre-left bloc. With a general election due next year, schools have become a central battleground in the campaign.
National Future has advocated “remigration” — the deportation of foreigners to their countries of origin — and has argued that Islamic “contamination” in classrooms harms national identity. Opponents say the government’s decree is designed to counter the rival party’s growing appeal rather than to solve a real classroom problem.
Opposition and backlash
The opposition pushed back sharply. Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein accused the government of “a new witch hunt at the expense of children.” The party’s school affairs spokesperson, Irene Manzi, pointed out that most students labeled “foreign” were born and raised in Italy, and called the 30% cap redundant.
Save the Children warned that forcing children to change schools or enrol in a different institution from their peers simply because of their nationality or limited proficiency in Italian would “create ‘first-class’ and ‘second-class’ students.” The head of Italy’s school principals’ association, Antonello Giannelli, said limiting foreign students per class would be difficult to implement in practice, particularly in areas where foreign families make up a majority of the population.
The numbers add context to the debate. According to data cited by the ANSA news agency, about 930,000 non-Italian students are enrolled in Italian educational institutions from preschool through upper secondary education — roughly 11.6% of all students. Valditara said there are 34,000 school classes in which over 30% of students are foreign, but added that most of those would not be affected by the new law, which targets new arrivals rather than those born in Italy or who attended kindergarten.
Critics also note that Italy already has a non-binding 30% cap on foreign pupils per class, introduced by a 2010 ministerial circular under then-education minister Mariastella Gelmini — though it is frequently disregarded and comes with exemptions. What the new decree changes in practice, opponents argue, remains unclear.
What happens next
The measure was approved as a decree law, which means it takes effect immediately but requires parliament to vote on and ratify it within 60 days, or it expires. The 30% classroom cap, meanwhile, would only apply from the 2027-28 school year.
Opponents are expected to fight the decree in parliament, and legal challenges over discrimination cannot be ruled out — similar school and public-space veil restrictions elsewhere in Europe have faced years of court battles.
Conclusion
With the decree, Meloni has planted a flag on one of the most emotionally charged issues in Italian politics: what integration really means in the classroom. Her government calls it common sense; her critics call it a witch hunt aimed at winning votes. Either way, the battle over Italy’s schools is now set to become one of the defining fights of next year’s general election campaign.
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