Overview
- Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the government will present the rule as a decreto legge that applies to new arrivals this school year and uses a linguistic criterion focused on pupils who do not speak Italian.
- The Quirinale and its juridical offices have reviewed the draft and requested substantive changes, warning that a binding 30% cap could clash with the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to education and with school autonomy.
- Experts and former senior ministry officials describe the cap as technically unworkable because public school assignments follow residency rules, local enrollment procedures prevent easy transfers, and principals cannot lawfully refuse students.
- Opposition leaders condemned Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for invoking Sergio Mattarella’s 1989–1990 ministerial circulars to justify the plan, and reporting notes those circulars were discretionary guidance aimed at integration rather than binding limits.
- The government is packaging the cap with a proposed ban on burqa and niqab in schools, and the next steps to watch are the Council of Ministers debate, the President’s constitutional check of the decreto legge, and how regions and local authorities would implement any revised text.