Valditara blasts school head for 'Fascism warning letter'

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 23 - 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 high scool 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.
    "The words of Valditara are extremely serious, offensive and unheard of," said Nardella.
    "He is unworthy to hold the role of education minister.
    "This government has not even found the time for the smallest of condemnations of the attack by the Azione Studentesca members on two minors who are pupils at the Michelangelo high school, but it wasted not time in intimidating a school principal". (ANSA).