Germany proposes burka ban for schools, universities and public workers

Germany could impose a ban on women wearing burkas or full-face Islamic veils at schools and universities and while driving under new proposals announced on Friday by Angela Merkel’s party.

The burka “does not belong in our cosmopolitan country”, Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister and one of Mrs Merkel’s closest allies, said as he announced the new policy.

“We all reject the full veil —  not only the burka but also other types of full veil that only leave the eyes visible. They have no place in our society.”

The proposals stop short of the complete ban called for by senior figures in Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU).

Instead what has been described as a “burka ban lite” will also apply to women working as public officials, attending public demonstrations, and in court.

“Showing your face is essential for our communication, co-existence and social cohesion and that's why we're asking everyone to show their faces,” Mr de Maiziere said.

“We want to introduce a law to make people show their faces and that means that those who break that law will have to face the consequences.”

Followers of a radical Islamic preacher at a Frankfurt demonstration in September 2013
Burkas and full veils will also be forbidden at public demonstrations CREDIT: BORIS ROESSLER/DPA/ALAMY 
Mrs Merkel made her own feelings on the issue clear in an interview with a number of German newspapers in advance of the announcement.

“In my view, a fully veiled woman has almost no chance of integrating successfully in German society,” she said.

The new policy was agreed at late night talks between Mr de Maiziere and interior ministers from several of Germany’s 16 federal states where the CDU is in power.

But before it can become law it will have to win the support of Mrs Merkel’s coalition partners in the federal government, the Social Democrats (SPD) — where it has already run into opposition from senior ministers.

Andrea Nahles, the employment and social affairs minister, descibed the proposed ban as a sign of “increasingly xenophobic” debate in Germany and said it would set back attempts to integrate immigrants.

And Heiko Maas, the justice minister, called for the burka to be kept separate from security issues.

Mr de Maiziere said the CDU ministers had agreed to drop demands for a complete ban because it would almost certainly have been struck down by Germany’s courts as unconstitutional.

The policy is likely to be largely symbolic as, unlike in other European countries which have imposed bans, burkas and full-face veils are already vanishingly rare in Germany.

There are some 4 million Muslims in Germany, accounting for around 5 per cent of the population. A government study in 2009 found that more than two-thirds of Muslim women in Germany wear no hair or face covering of any kind.

Calls for a burka ban have been largely fuelled by the CDU’s nervousness over the threat from the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at general elections next year.

The AfD, which inflicted damaging losses on both the CDU and SPD in regional elections earlier this year, has since adopted an openly anti-Muslim agenda and declared Islam “does not belong in Germany”.

Two of the state interior ministers calling for the ban face a challenge from the AfD at regional elections next month.

The ban is one of a series of measures called for by the state interior ministers in what has been called the “Berlin declaration”.

Many of the proposals have already been adopted by Mr de Maiziere in a policy speech last week, including more police numbers and a provision to strip dual citizens who fight for jihadist and other extremist groups abroad of their German nationality.

But the state ministers appear to have dropped a call for a complete end to dual citizenship, which Mr de Maiziere made clear he did not support.

The calls for a burka ban have proved controversial even within the CDU. Armin Laschet, deputy party chairman, dismissed the proposals as a “phony debate” and distraction from more pressing issues.

“The security situation is so serious that we need to focus fully on internal security and not to grandstanding themes,” he said.