U-turn by Merkel as she says: Let’s ban the burka
ANGELA Merkel yesterday promised to ban the burka as she declared she was finally getting tough on immigration, in a bid to cling to power.
The German chancellor was forced to admit the chaos caused by her decision to allow more than a million migrants into the country ‘must not be repeated’.
She unveiled the dramatic U-turn as she set out her pitch for a fourth term as leader, saying the mainly Muslim arrivals needed to integrate better if they wanted to stay in the country.
Her hardened approach won immediate approval from members of her Christian Democratic Union party who gave her a standing ovation lasting 11 minutes at their annual congress in Essen.
In a speech aiming to claw back support lost to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, Mrs Merkel said ‘not all’ the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who came last year ‘can or will stay’.
The remarks are a humiliating climbdown for the leader after she opened the country’s borders to newcomers last summer declaring: ‘We can do this.’
For the first time yesterday she called for a burka ban in Germany, saying: ‘With us the rule is “show your face”.
‘That’s why the full veil is not appropriate and should be banned wherever legally possible.’
Mrs Merkel had previously argued that Muslim women should be discouraged from wearing the veil but that a ban would be excessive.
The CDU, which has suffered a string of poor results in state elections, is adopting a motion calling for a burka ban, as well as penalties for migrants who do not join German language courses.
The chancellor, who has led Germany for 11 years, acknowledged that elections next year would ‘not be a walk in the park’.
In a ballot of CDU members, she was yesterday re-elected as party leader with an overwhelming 89.5 per cent of support, but this was down from two years ago when she got 96.7 per cent.
Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi’s defeat in a national referendum on Sunday and the impending departure of French president Francois Hollande, have made Mrs Merkel’s position look precarious. A poll on Sunday showed support for the CDU and its Bavarian sister party is at a ten-month high of 37 per cent – 15 points ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats – but she could still be ousted by a leftwing coalition.
‘It is our job to be so strong as to prevent that,’ Mrs Merkel told the conference.
‘The 2017 election for the Bundestag will be difficult like no previous election – at least since German re-unification. You must help me.’
Mrs Merkel stressed her determination to ensure no repeat of the huge migrant influx that has seen more than a million people arrive since the start of last year. ‘A situation like the one in the late summer of 2015 cannot, should not and must not be repeated,’ she said.
She added: ‘We are faced with a world – especially after the US election – that needs to re-order itself, with regard to Nato and the relationship with Russia.’ Mrs Merkel last month announced she would seek a fourth term next autumn. Only two post-war chancellors, Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, achieved a similar feat.
Support for bans on full-face veils has grown across Europe since France implemented such a law in 2011. Dutch MPs last month voted to ban face coverings in schools, hospitals or on public transport.