Former president Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) has vowed in a nationwide televised speech that he will re-activate the suspended burkini ban if elected as next French president. He’s campaigning to be conservative candidate in next year’s election.
Image: File Photo
Three senior judges from the State Council (Conseil d’Etat) said in their ruling against the ban on Saturday that the law: “has dealt a serious and clearly illegal blow to fundamental liberties such as the freedom of movement, freedom of conscience and personal liberty.”
The judges explained further that there’s no evidence produced in favor of the prohibition to justify that burkinis proved a risk to public order.
Image: File Photo
However, Sarkozy claims “the controversial swimwear” which allows Muslim women to cover their hair and face is a “provocation”. The comment was made during an interview earlier this week.
“Wearing a burkini is “a political act, militant, a provocation,” he argues.
The presidential hopeful is said to be fronting a true French identity as he strategize to take over reigns from the incumbent Francois Hollande.
“I refuse to let the burkini impose itself in French beaches and swimming pools…there must be a law to ban it throughout the Republic’s territory,” Sarkozy said to applause.
“Our identity is under threat when we accept an immigration policy that makes no sense.”
Image shows officers of the law in France instructing a women in burkini.
As supercharged opinions continue to pour out against and for the ban on burkinis, “more than a dozen French cities and communes have banned the swimwear in a trend started by the Riviera city of Cannes”.
Citizens who are against the fashion trend do so in the context of “terrorism”.
In support of Mr Sarkozy’s claim against laws that permit burkinis for Muslim women, conservative Mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, Lionnel Luca says “rampant Islamization is progressing in our country” and with the ruling to suspend his town’s ban on burkinis at public beaches “they’ve gained a small additional step.”
“Far from calming, this decision can only heighten passions and tensions, with the risk of trouble we wanted to avoid,” he said.
Image: File Photo
Meanwhile, France’s highest administrative court has looked into the bye-laws that previously placed a ban on wearing burkinis in public. In the court’s judgement, this prohibition is “illegal”, adding that it has declared same “null and void” .
The court says allowing burkinis in the country would be “respectful to morality and secular principles”.
Image: File Photo
The original ban was challenged by the Human Rights League (LDH) and Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), who took the case to the State Council.
In a statement, the LDH welcomed the latest court verdict but adds it won’t change anything in this “ridiculous debate that has made France the laughing stock of the world”.
“What is at stake here is the division of the men and women who live in France by their origin and religion,” activists said. “We reject this vision of France.”
Sarkozy is a patriarchal loser.