Italian far-right leader Georgia Meloni won election and is going to become the country’s first female prime minister. Meloni is expected to form Italy’s most right-wing government since World War Two which is getting major concern for other European countries. 

The new government will undoubtedly affect all areas of social life in Italy, including education. Despite her extremely conservative views, Meloni has openly supported learning initiatives related to learning English and studying abroad throughout the election race and spoke about plans for “reactivation of schools, universities, and investigation”. The far-right political programme establishes the goal of enabling all students to fully dominate the English language and complementing national preparation with Study Abroad programmes. In fact, it mentions several times to encourage Study Abroad for Italian students, for which additional languages play a very important role.  

On the other hand, there are going to be side effects caused by people’s dissatisfaction with the right-wing government coming to power. The number of Italians willing to leave the country and move to more liberal countries may increase. For this reason, the demand for language courses and international language certificates may go up quickly. Even though not likely, the hypothetical scenario of PD’s electoral win would constitute an opportunity thanks to their education proposal and mentioning of Study Abroad programmes (for which standarized tests tend to be greatly useful).

The far-right importance placed on helping national companies might also constitute a threat when considering the introduction of foreign enterprises into Italy. 

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References

Politico. Italy. (2022) “2022 general election.”