German chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a ban on full-face veils in the country, during a speech at her party’s conference on Tuesday.
“The full veil is not appropriate here, it should be forbidden wherever that is legally possible. It does not belong to us,” Merkel said at the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gathering, garnering a massive applause from the audience.
“Here we say ‘show your face’. So full veiling is not appropriate here. It should be prohibited wherever legally possible,” she
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere also calling for the veil to barred from public places in August.”It does not fit into our society for us, for our communication, for our cohesion in the society…. This is why we demand you show your face,” he said at the time.
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In April 2011, France also became the first European country to ban wearing the burqa, a full-body covering that includes mesh over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil with an opening for the eyes, in public.
Those breaking the law face fines of 150 euros (about $205) or public service duties.
Merkel also told delegates that last year’s influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees would not happen again.
“A situation like that [in] the summer of 2015 can and should not be repeated,” Merkel said at the two-day conference in the western industrial city of Essen. “This was and remains our declared political goal.”
She told the conference refugees had found protection in Germany against war, persecution, and lack of perspective in their troubled homelands. But she also said “not every refugee can stay”.
Merkel, 62, offered up these comments weeks after she announced she would be seeking a fourth term in next year’s elections.
The laws have been criticized by religious freedom advocates but supported by others who see the Islamic veil as demeaning to women and inconsistent with France’s rigorously enforced secularism.
Merkel’s government has attempted to address public fears surrounding last year’s record influx of nearly 1.1 million refugees and migrants, mostly from predominantly Muslim countries.
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