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.
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