Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara
faced a massive backlash on Thursday after he blasted the head
of a Florence school who warned of the risk of Fascism after two
of her students were attacked last weekend, allegedly by
right-wing militants.
Two pupils were punched and kicked on the ground outside
Florence's Michelangelo on Saturday and police have identified
six young members of the Azione Studentesca right-wing group,
including three minors, as suspects.
In the letter to her pupils, school principal Annalisa Savino
said that Fascism was born "on the edges of an ordinary
sidewalk, with the victim of a beating for political reasons
left alone by indifferent passers-by".
Valditara told Mediaset television that the letter was "totally
improper" because "it is not a principal's job to send out
messages like this and the content has nothing to do with
reality.
"If this attitude were to continue, we will see whether it is
necessary to take measures," he added.
Florence Mayor Dario Nardella, a senior member of the
opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD), was among the
many figures to condemn the minister's comments.
Nardella called on Valditara to "apologize and resign" saying
his "intimidatory" tone was against the "Constitutional
principles of school autonomy and freedom of thought".
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