Foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that he wanted more African students to come to Italy, in remarks that may exacerbate a coalition squabble over immigration and citizenship rights.

Tajani’s centre-right Forza Italia party has urged the government to consider granting citizenship to foreign minors who have completed most of their education in Italy.

The proposal has met with opposition from the two hard-right coalition parties, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League.

“I think the numbers of African students studying in Italy should be increased”, Tajani said at a Catholic business and politics conference in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast.

He was discussing an Italian development initiative for African countries, known as the Mattei Plan, named after the late founder of Italy’s state controlled energy company Eni.

Tajani likened the project to a modern day Marshall Plan, which saw the United States support European economies in the aftermath of World War Two.

Far fewer foreigners study in Italy than in other large European Union nations.

Data from Italy’s national statistics institute ISTAT shows the country issued around 25,000 study permits in 2022, compared to almost 105,000 issued by France and about 70,000 by Germany.

ISTAT cited the relatively limited use of Italian as an international language and the difficulties of finding work in Italy among probable reasons for the dearth of foreign students.