Italy PM overrules headmaster over carols

Christmas runners wearing Santa Claus costumes take part in the second Athens 'Santa Claus Run' in city's centre on November 29, 2015. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has slapped down a headmaster who has banned Christmas concerts and carols in his school near Milan in the name of multiculturalism. PHOTO | ANGELOS TZORTZINIS | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The head of the Garofani comprehensive school in the small town of Rozzano has also confirmed saying no to two mothers who wanted to teach Christmas carols to the children during lunch-breaks.

ROME, Sunday

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has slapped down a headmaster who has banned Christmas concerts and carols in his school near Milan in the name of multiculturalism.

“Christmas is much more important than a headmaster being provocative,” Mr Renzi told Sunday’s edition of Corriere della Sera.

“If he thinks he is promoting integration and co-existence in this way, he appears to me to have made a very big mistake.” Marco Parma, 63, sparked protests from some parents and a media outcry by deciding to postpone the annual Christmas concert for primary school pupils to January and rebrand it a “winter concert” which will not feature any religious songs.

The head of the Garofani comprehensive school in the small town of Rozzano has also confirmed saying no to two mothers who wanted to teach Christmas carols to the children during lunch-breaks.

“In a multi-ethnic environment, it causes problems,” Parma said, saying his decisions had been influenced by an unhappy experience last year.

“Last year we had a Christmas concert and some parents insisted on having carols. The Muslim children didn’t sing, they just stood there, absolutely rigid.

“It is not nice watching a child not singing, or worse, being called down from the stage by their parents.”

The school, which has primary and middle school sections, has a roll of around 1,000 pupils with an estimated one in five of non-Christian faiths, primarily Islam.