CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has supported a ban on the wearing of full-face veils “wherever it is legally possible” after she was re-elected unopposed as leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union.
She backed the prohibition of the burka in schools, universities, during police checks as well as in courts and other state buildings, reversing her earlier stance, when she addressed a key party meeting yesterday.
A full ban on the facial veil, as introduced in France in 2011, is seen as incompatible with Germany’s laws.
Last year Merkel won plaudits from human rights campaigners across the world when she allowed around a million refugees who were stuck in Hungary after fleeing the war in Syria to settle in Germany.
But at home her approval ratings slipped and she faces a backlash from the right-wing anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party in next year’s elections where she is seeking a fourth term in government.
Merkel told the annual CDU congress in the Essen it was right to expect integration from newcomers and expressed support for a proposal, outlined in August by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, to outlaw the burka or any full-face veil in public buildings.
“Our law takes precedence over codes of honour, tribal or family rules, and over sharia law – that has to be spelled out clearly,” Merkel said, explaining her decision to back a partial ban. “This also means that it is important to show face when people communicate.”
After her speech, 89.5 per cent of the 1,000 CDU delegates at the meeting in Essen re-elected Merkel as their party leader – the lowest endorsement of her time as Chancellor. As in previous years, her candidacy was unopposed.
“The full veil is not appropriate here. It should be banned wherever it’s legally possible,” Merkel said.
While insisting Germany had been right to offer refuge to people fleeing a war zone in Syria, she also said many asylum seekers would have to leave Germany again in the future, vowing to speed up deportations of those who had been rejected.
She said: “Not all of those who have come here can and will stay.”
During her speech she condemned Russia and Iran’s support for Bashar al-Assad and the failure to stop bombing attacks on Aleppo.
She said: “It is a disgrace that we haven’t been able to set up aid corridors. We have to keep on fighting for that.”
And she expressed her frustration with the lack of public outrage about the humanitarian situation in Syria, referring to the opposition in Germany to the TTIP deal: “To be honest, if a free-trade agreement with the United States of America can bring hundreds of thousands out on to the streets, but the barbarous bombardments of Aleppo don’t trigger any public protests, then something is wrong with our political standards.”
On the day that the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michael Barnier insisted Britain’s new status in relation with the European Union would have to be inferior to membership, Merkel repeated her commitment to the EU’s “four freedoms”: free movement of goods, capital, services and people.
She said: “Negotiations around Brexit are threatening to weaken the single market, and there’s great pressure on Europe’s four basic freedoms. We will not allow any cherry picking: the four freedoms have to be preserved.”
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