Protests in Italy against educational reform

The continuing protests in Italy against the educational reform, which have resulted in street battles between radical groups of students, prompt the daily Le Temps to analyse the deterioration in the social mood in Italy. "It's a long time since Italy has had such a destructive social climate. ... The mass protests that the law [introduced by Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini] has induced between different extreme tendencies within the student movement shows that the school reform is only a symptom of a more profound malaise. For some time Italian society's radical attitude to immigrants, but also the polarisation of social relations among the Italians themselves, has been an alarming factor in a creeping [social] intolerance. In football stadiums the Ultras [fans prepared to engage in violence] feel justified in using the Hitler salute. ... The rebellion of the Italian students is not just a whim. It is a cry for help from a younger generation looking for a future not marked by fear."

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Education, » Social movements, » Italy
All available articles from » Stéphane Bussard

» To the complete press review of Thursday, October 30, 2008