"A measure is about to arrive in the Cabinet that introduces by law the maximum number of foreign students per class, introduces the obligation for parents of foreign students with serious problems of school integration to learn Italian, and introduces the ban on burqas and hijabs in schools." This was stated by Prime Minister and FdI leader Giorgia Meloni, on stage at Fenix, the festival of Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her party. "It cannot happen, it simply cannot happen, that in an Italian classroom it is Italian children who feel pushed into a corner because they have become the minority. This cannot be allowed." "I am proud to announce that we will soon pass the regulation introducing the liceo designation for technical and vocational institutes as well, because from the very name we want it to be clear that they are schools of equal value and that the people who attend them are of equal value."
"You are a sight that sets the heart ablaze and you are one of the reasons why it is worth resisting, persevering, doing politics," Meloni said. "Let's be honest with ourselves," she continued, "what is politics, real politics, in the end, if not the stubborn, perhaps even unreasonable claim — some might even call it wishful thinking — that our passage through this world is not in vain? That something after us will be better because we were here, that someone may reap what we had the courage to sow when we did not know whether we would be the ones to harvest the fruits of that sowing, and that they will consider it an invitation, perhaps even a challenge, to do more, to do better. Well, you are that someone, you are what gives it meaning."
"At a time when everyone tells you that you essentially need to appear, you have chosen to belong. These are two very different concepts. Appearing is quick, belonging takes time and sacrifice. Appearing is possible even alone, belonging decidedly is not. Appearing requires that you be seen, belonging requires that you be present — and above all that you be present when the spotlight fades." "Between appearing and belonging, one word changes, but what changes is the way of being in the world, the way of valuing one's time, the way of building relationships with others," Meloni added, explaining that "it is along this fault line that much of the way your generation is portrayed, represented, and above all deceived, runs." "As if being visible meant being recognised, as if collecting likes meant building bonds, as if having an audience were the same thing as having a community. It is not the same thing," she stressed. "It is not the same thing because when you have a community there is someone willing to tell you the truth, someone willing to tell you the truth even when that truth is not what you want to hear, even if it is not what you want — simply because hearing that truth is good for you."
"For decades, due to a certain do-gooder mentality, Italian schools were afraid to tell the truth. It was forbidden to say 'you got it wrong', forbidden to say 'this is not acceptable', and so on. They tried to convince us that this was the best way to educate, they called it respect, but that is not education and it is not respect, it is a lie."
"A lie that a young person very often ends up paying for years later, perhaps during a job interview, when it is already too late to make up for it. And look," he added, "the heavy price was not paid by those who had the financial means to find elsewhere what Italian schools could not guarantee when quality tutoring, excellence courses, and study holidays abroad were not available. No, the price was paid by those who, in order to grow and succeed, could only count on public school. And so I've said it before and I'll say it again, I've said it before and I'll say it again, this was the greatest failure of '68. This was the greatest failure of a revolution that was born to build a school for everyone and for all, and ended up producing the exact opposite."
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