Berlin: Thomas de Maiziere, a German Interior Minister reached to a decision of partial burqa ban in the middle of a violent national debate on incorporation. Said, “We agree that we reject the burqa, we agree that we want to introduce a legal requirement to show one’s face in places where it is necessary for our society’s coexistence in schools and universities, public offices, at the registry office, in the civil service, in court,” was talking after a meeting with regional counterparts from his conservative party.
De Maiziere told public television that the full face covering “does not belong in our cosmopolitan country”.
“We want to show our faces to each other and that is why we agree that we reject this – the question is how we put this into law,” he said.
De Maiziere shows that banning the burqa only under certain circumstances as opposed to burqa will privileged by the hard right of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Union bloc and would be “likely to win approval” in parliament.
Merkel’s right-left “grand coalition” holds an overwhelming majority in the Bundestag lower house.
De Maiziere has to compromise with hardliners for two key state elections in next month which the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party looks set to make strong gains.
Just last week he had rejected a call from conservative state interior ministers for a burqa ban, saying: “We can’t ban everything that we reject, and I reject the wearing of the burqa.”
He made his promise on Aug 11 as he reveled new anti-terror measures after two attacks in Germany last month claimed by the Islamic State group.
The measures included a notorious suggestion to remove jihadist fighters of their German nationality.
The security package also calls for extradition of guilty criminal migrants and police resources to be boosted.
The AfD attempted to record arrival of migrants and refugees from Middle East, to Germany last year with an increased threat of terrorism, an argument Merkel sharply rejected this week on the campaign follow in her home district.###
