Minister lashed out at medical college students throughout Atreju occasion in Rome.
Italy’s minister for college and analysis, Anna Maria Bernini, engaged in a heated alternate with small group of scholars on Thursday throughout a public discuss in Rome.
Bernini, 60, was addressing the viewers at Atreju, the annual political competition organised by the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia occasion of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, held this 12 months at Castel Sant’Angelo.
The college students started heckling Bernini, protesting her medical faculty reform, particularly the brand new open-entry ‘filter’ semester and nationwide advantage rating system.
The filter semester was designed to abolish the restricted variety of locations in drugs nonetheless the transfer is inflicting discontent amongst college students as a result of alleged irregularities within the exams which have resulted in a really low cross price.
As she started her speech, a number of college students from the UDU scholar union stood up and shouted: “We cannot take it anymore, there are younger people who find themselves sick, who’ve began going to the psychologist once more, who’re taking their very own lives, who danger shedding a 12 months with the filter semester”.
From the stage, the minister invited the group to affix in a derisive applause, saying: “Here are our pals, the protesters, let’s give them a giant spherical of applause,” earlier than wheeling out a catchphrase beloved of former Italian prime minister and founding father of her centre-right Forza Italia occasion, Silvio Berlusconi.
“You know what [party president] Berlusconi used to say? You’re nonetheless poor communists”, Bernini charged, including: “Before you protest, let me converse. This reveals your uselessness. You are ineffective.”
É inaccettabile che a degli studenti in evidenti difficoltà la Ministra Bernini risponda che “sono dei poveri comunisti”. Ministra chieda scusa e ammetta il fallimento del semestre filtro per l’accesso alla facoltà di medicina pic.twitter.com/sxirikTvLe
— Italia Viva (@ItaliaViva) December 11, 2025
Bernini was backed by the viewers at Atreju, with the reference to Berlusconi prompting wild applause from the group.
“The college students’ technique is chaos: they discuss however do not pay attention” – Bernini claimed – “I begin to fear when some political events echo them.”
The minister then made her approach into the group, microphone in hand, confronting the medical college students and defending her reforms, saying that she had “invested €9.4 billion in universities and greater than €800 million in scholarships”.
Footage of Bernini’s “poveri comunisti” feedback was shared proudly on-line by her Forza Italia occasion nonetheless it wasn’t lengthy earlier than her remarks triggered a political backlash from the opposition.
“In entrance of younger women and men legitimately protesting a reform that has confirmed to be a colossal flop, the minister thought it finest to reply not on the deserves, however by insulting them,” accused Irene Manzi and Francesco Verducci of the centre-left Partito Democratic (PD).
The small centrist Italia Viva occasion shared video of the “unacceptable” feedback on X, calling on the minister to “apologise and admit the failure of the filter semester for entry to the school of drugs”.
“How dare she? Apologise and resign,” stated Elisabetta Piccolotti of the Green and Left Alliance (AVS), whereas Giovanni Barbera of the Communist Refoundation Party stated: “Better communists than Berlusconi supporters”.
Photo credit score: Pierre Teyssot / Shutterstock.com.
