Meloni: ‘Let’s help 150,000 young people overcome the language barrier: it mustn’t hold back their talent’

‘We are talking about the most significant language training and international mobility programme ever organised in Italia for secondary school pupils. A €420 million investment from European Structural Funds that we have decided to allocate to this challenge: resources we wish to make available to enable at least 150,000 Italian boys and girls to enjoy an experience that we consider particularly important in a European country.” Giorgia Meloni arrives unexpectedly and in a hurry at the ‘Italian Students in Europe’ event in Rome, where the plan to boost language learning, promoted by the Ministry of Education and Merit, is being presented.

In the presence of the Minister Giuseppe Valditara, whom she thanked, the Prime Minister addressed the students directly: ‘Do not think of this as merely an opportunity to learn a foreign language, because it is more than that. Living and studying abroad, even for just a few weeks or a few months, means learning to cope with new situations, becoming more independent, engaging with people who have different customs, ideas and cultures from our own, and thus broadening your horizons and your ability to understand others.”

Referring also to certain episodes from his personal life – learning English to understand Michael Jackson’s songs, French out of a passion for the Decadent poets, and Spanish to settle into life in the Canary Islands, where his father lived – Meloni explains the rationale behind the investment: ‘We believe that our young people’s talent deserves the same opportunities as all their European peers. We believe that a young person’s talent cannot and must not be held back by a language barrier in this day and age. If we do not remove that barrier today, we risk many young Italians not being fully free tomorrow in their ability to make choices, because they face the language barrier. And we want to do everything we can to overcome it.’

The Prime Minister also tells the student representatives that few experiences have taught her what politics is like ‘as much as student assemblies: one of the most complex things you can do in your life. So you’re doing the right thing, because what you’re doing will teach you a great deal, whatever choices you make in your life’.

There is also time for a reflection on the Government’s stance regarding the issue of opportunities. ‘Equality,’ Meloni states for the record, ‘truly exists at the starting point, not at the finishing line. That is for you to determine. We are trying to create these equal starting conditions for everyone.’ Language learning is part of this foundation which the Prime Minister considers essential: ‘It will make all the difference in this day and age, because this is an interconnected world in which, for better or worse, you will find yourselves, whatever path you decide to take in your lives.’