As Minister of Education, Sergio Mattarella also "drafted circulars" inviting foreign children not to be concentrated in the same classes. Giorgia Meloni chooses the TV lounge Bruno Vespa - fresh from a bad domestic accident but determined to go on air anyway - to reject, and instead turn in her favour, "the prevailing interpretation" which read the words of the Head of State at the inauguration of the school year in Amatrice as a challenge to the government.
And to his desire to place by law, and not by circular, a cap on foreigners in class which should arrive in the Council of Ministers as early as Thursday. Sources at the Quirinale, interviewed on this matter, did not comment on the prime minister's words. In circles close to the Hill, they simply explain that discussions are underway between the offices of the Presidency of the Republic and those of the competent ministry on the measures that the government intends to implement. Although it is not yet known whether the text of the provision will come in the form of a law decree or a bill.
In the meantime, the opposition notes that there is a clear difference between a legal text such as the one now proposed by the Executive and circulars, such as those written by the then Minister of Education, defined as 'inclusive' and made with the aim of facilitating 'integration'. The Prime Minister's way of "pulling the President's coattails over the controversy of the day" - criticizes Elly Schlein - which demonstrates an "obvious and total lack of sense of the State". And "a direct provocation to the highest office of the State".
A line shared, in cascade, with all the rest of the oppositions, including Avs and 5 stars. The lieutenants of FdI, as well as Matteo Salvini, had already supported the Prime Minister's thesis on the subject. She argues it in prime time on Rai1. The intent, the reasoning goes, is to "overcome the ghettos", both on the part of the executive and in the words of the President of the Republic who "precisely says that the school must overcome the ghettos, must not create ghettos". And a ghetto "is clearly much simpler if you take a foreign child who doesn't speak our language and put him in a class where the majority of students don't speak our language".
In short, the government's will is to achieve "a more equal distribution of classes", intervening, Meloni specifies, on "kids who don't speak our language". It is about "common sense", as in the case of the burqa, which should be banned at school, and also in public places as proposed by FdI, also for a question of "safety". There is also the economy, in the episode of Porta a Porta, on the day in which the early exit from the EU infringement procedure for excessive deficit fades. "I'm very sorry" because "we had done 30..." comments the Prime Minister, recalling that there was "very complex work that led us to reduce the deficit from 8.1% to 3.08%".
Of course the regret increases because "year after year" the estimates have been revised and "I don't know if Istat underestimates the Italians or the government...". What is certain is that now the path is more complicated also to exploit the clause on defense and energy but at the moment there are no decisions made. In the next few days it will be explored further during the work on the next budget law, with which the government is working, he reiterates, to confirm "the tax exemption of contractual increases". .
The next one will probably be the last maneuver of his executive, if the vote comes in the spring rather than at the natural end of the legislature. "Everyone says it because they can't wait to get away from it", jokes the Prime Minister without, however, going into too much detail about the date. Although in view of the electoral campaign he sends a message to Roberto Vannacci: "I have no elements to support" that he is a Trojan horse from Moscow, he replies to Vespa except to point out that the former general has relaunched pages with "arguments of the most shameful Russian propaganda against me".
The appointment with the polls will be reached, if everything goes smoothly in the last passage in the Chamber, with the reform of the electoral law which reintroduces preferences. If there is no trust, "we would take note of it", repeats the prime minister, while still leaving open the door to an early vote if the law does not pass.
