Italian state schools will no longer demand parents prove that their children have been vaccinated, the country’s new populist government has announced.

Lega leader Matteo Salvini said he considered 10 vaccines - the amount Italian schoolchildren are required by law to have - to not only be useless, but potentially dangerous, in the run-up to the general election in March 2018.

The new policy is likely to stoke fears that the coalition government, which also includes the Five Star Movement, may look to legislate other campaign promises which critics argue are not grounded in scientific proof.

“We want to spur school inclusion and simplify rules for parents,” said Giulia Grillo, Italy’s health minister.

The anti-establishment government said it sought to make simplify procedures so to increase school participation.

According to critics, the move erodes faith in science and undermines public norms.

“Weakening a law that works, that Italians are respecting and is doing some good to children and to the health system is a self-destructive strategy,” Roberto Burioni, a virologist at San Raffaele University in Milan, told the New York Times.

Mr Burioni cited the requirement that demands people wishing to take swimming classes possess a doctor-signed certificate of good health: “If I die while I swim, I am not hurting anyone else .. Here, we are here trusting people on something that does hurt everyone else.”

Five Star Movement leader and deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, has reportedly suggested reverting to having just five compulsory vaccinations.

By undermining the importance of children getting vaccinated, Italy is bucking a continental trend.

Germany has since last year taken a stricter line against parents who refuse to vaccinate their babies before they go to preschool while France has introduced fines for non-compliant parents.