Bill to ban English in official documents not a govt proposal says Tajani

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 4 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Tuesday that a bill seeking to ban the use of foreign words in official Italian documents was not proposed by the government, but by an individual lawmaker, and dismissed talk of it being a sign of nostalgia for Benito Mussolini.
    "It's the bill of a parliamentarian, not of the government, and bills have to be passed by the Lower House and the Senate," Tajani told reporters at the Foreign Press Association in Rome when asked if the bill had a 'Mussolinian flavour'.
    "The defence of the Italian language has nothing to do with Mussolini.
    "Fascism ended in 1945, it's in the past and it does not interest us and does not concern us.
    "Mussolini did more damage than useful stuff.
    "I have always defended the Italian language. It's the mother tongue.
    "Dante Alighieri is the poet of Italian".
    The bill was presented by Fabio Rampelli, an MP for Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
    It would institute fines ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 euros for public employees using foreign instead of Italian words in any public communication, for firms that employ foreign terms for job titles, and for schools and universities using non-Italian expressions, unless this is justified by the presence of foreign students. (ANSA).