Abstract
The article critically analyzes sociopolitical discourses about language(s) and multilingualism in South Tyrolean preschools by combining political and discourse theory. Drawing on empirical material from a discussion on the topic broadcast on public regional television, in which representatives of politics, research, pedagogical practice and parents participated, the author describes a hierarchization of educational rights in favor of the ‘German’ group, which is constructed as endangered. Through references to the historical era of fascism and Italianization measures associated with it, a continuity of minorization is constructed that requires special protection of the German group and makes it possible to demand the exclusion of non-German positioned children from the educational system. Overall, the analysis reveals a reversal of linguistic majority and minority relations. The targeted monolingualization and mono-ethnicization of preschools is legitimized with a quasinatural authority of the Second Autonomy Statute, which can be read as a strategy of depoliticization.