When in Germany, do as the Germans do.
Via DW:
Germany’s conservative interior ministers have released their much-vaunted “Berlin Declaration,” which included plans for a partial ban on full-face veils in public. But rules on dual citizenship will remain the same.
Germany’s conservative interior ministers have released their much-vaunted “Berlin Declaration,” which included plans for a partial ban on full-face veils in public. But rules on dual citizenship will remain the same.
Deutschland Frau in Burka BerlinAfter a number of recent noncommittal statements, Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has come out in favor of a ban on full-face veils in certain areas of public life, making a partial concession to his state-level colleagues in the Christian Democratic Union.
De Maiziere presented the interior ministers’ “Berlin Declaration” on Friday morning following a meeting with his colleagues in Berlin on Thursday night to hash out the fine points of the plan.
“We unanimously reject the burqa,” de Maiziere told public TV network ZDF on Friday morning. “It does not fit in our open country.” He added that CDU interior ministers have pledged to draw up legislation that would force people to show their faces where “it is necessary for living together in our society.”
According to de Maiziere, these situations included driving a car, visiting public authorities, in schools and universities, working in public service and appearing in court. He added that the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the CDU’s coalition partner in the federal government and some states, would agree with much of the Berlin Declaration.
Chancellor Angela Merkel took a similar line on the issue on Thursday, telling the news group RND that though she was opposed to a blanket ban, she accepted that “a fully covered woman has little chance of integrating in Germany.”
Volker Bouffier, CDU state premier in the central German state of Hesse, expressed satisfaction with the compromise. “For me it’s first and foremost about liberating women,” he told “Der Spiegel” magazine. “When I look out of my office, I sometimes see completely veiled women with their husbands walking five meters in front of them wearing flip-flops and shorts, and it’s 30 degrees. If someone tells me that’s what the woman wants, I have to say, that’s nonsense!”