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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hit out against the effects of Muslim immigration in a recent speech, stating that her government was drafting two legislative proposals aiming to ban Islamic face coverings in schools, as well as cap the number of foreign students in classrooms.

According to Meloni, “If the number of children who do not understand the language of instruction becomes large, or even forms the majority, that is no longer integration; that is neglect.” Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party had previously said in 2025 that it aimed to ban the burqa and niqab in public spaces, accurately referencing them as symbols of “Islamic separatism.”

Meloni further commented, “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.” While liberals and leftists are sometimes criticized for refraining to criticize traditionalist Islamic culture, they have long since stopped emphasizing assimilation into Western culture, and reflexively side with Muslims as supposedly oppressed third worlders.

Italy is not the first European country to struggle with Muslim immigration and its cultural effects. Back in 2011, France officially banned Islamic face coverings in public places. Police enforcement of the ban in its initial years was met with spells of violent backlash from young Muslims in the country,

More recently, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been surging in the country’s state elections. Germany, of course, was at the center of last decade’s migrant crisis, fueled by former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s permissive approach to the issue. The AfD has made expelling all illegal migrants a key plank in its platform.

Meloni has previously expressed doubt regarding Muslims’ ability to assimilate into Western society. In 2018, before she became Prime Minister, she commented, “I believe there is a problem of compatibility between Islamic culture and the rights and values of our civilization.” She also criticized Saudi financing of Islamic cultural centers in Italy.

Western liberal parties, and even some ostensibly conservative ones, have faced such intense backlash for the results of open-borders policy that it would make sense for them to moderate on the issue, if only for the sake of their own political survival. As long as “diversity” and its failed promises remain liberalism’s organizing principle, though, it is doubtful that this will happen. Instead, the leaders of such parties will continue to act shocked as they lose ground to supposed “extremists” who actually address the issue.