IS MELONI’S SCHOOL NIQAB BAN IN ITALY ABOUT INTEGRATION OR THE 2027 ELECTION?

Mon 21 September 2026:

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who leads a far-right government, announced plans to prohibit burqas and niqabs in schools and to cap the number of foreign pupils per classroom. Immigration is expected to be a major issue in the general election due next year.

Meloni outlined the proposed changes on Sunday at a gathering of the youth wing of her nationalist conservative Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, adding that they 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 Gioventu Nazionale national festival in Rome. “It is the only serious way to welcome them.”

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

Meloni’s right-wing administration is Italy’s longest-running government since the end of the Second World War, but her party is expected to face a serious challenge in 2027 from the National Future (FN) party, which is further to the right of the FdI and its popularity has been rapidly increasing in polls since February.

FN called for a crackdown on the wearing of burqas in schools in July.

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Law on face coverings

Burqas are full-face veils sometimes worn by Muslim women that hide the entire face, including the eyes. Niqabs are similar, but the eyes are visible.

Neither covering is expressly banned in Italy, but a 1975 law prohibits the use of helmets or garments that make identification difficult without a justified reason.

A 2008 ruling later clarified that full-face coverings may be worn for religious or cultural reasons if the face is revealed when identity verification is required.

However, the anti-immigrant League party, which is part of Meloni’s ruling coalition, submitted a bill earlier this year that would ban helmets or garments, except in specific circumstances such as sporting events or places of worship.

Alongside the burqa ban, Meloni said she would implement a legal cap on the number of foreign students per class.

However, a 30 percent limit on foreign students per class and school already exists under Italian law and Meloni did not spell out how that would change.

Foreign students currently make up about 12 percent of enrolment in Italian schools.

Integration or Election Politics?

Meloni is under pressure from her right. A harder-line party, Futuro Nazionale, led by former general Roberto Vannacci, is rising in the polls. Immigration remains a potent campaign issue.

Roberto Vannacci is a former Italian army general who left Matteo Salvini’s League early in 2026 and founded Futuro Nazionale. In months, the party has climbed from nowhere to about 7 percent in recent polls—ahead of the League and, in some surveys, Forza Italia.

That is a problem for Giorgia Meloni. Her Brothers of Italy party is still first, around 26–27 percent, but the governing centre-right is leaking votes on its right. Vannacci’s support comes largely from the same pool: voters who think Meloni has not been tough enough on immigration.

His pitch is harsher than hers. He talks about “remigration,” not just border control: cutting the foreign population from about 12 percent to 4 percent, ending work-quota decrees, expelling irregular migrants and criminals, and making citizenship much harder. That makes Meloni look moderate by comparison.

She then faces a trap. Ally with him and she may scare off centrists. Shut him out and he can split the right before the 2027 election, helping the centre-left. That is why her school package—a veil ban and a cap on foreign pupils—is also politics: an attempt to own the immigration issue without adopting Vannacci’s full remigration programme.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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