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France's highest court suspends burkini ban in test case France's far-right calls for extension to burkini ban
(about 3 hours later)
France’s highest administrative court has suspended a ban on the burkini in a Riviera coastal town after a challenge by rights groups. France’s political row over the burkini continued to rage on Friday, as the French right stepped up its call for the garment to be outlawed nationwide despite a decision by the country’s highest administrative court to suspend a ban in one Riviera coastal town.
The ruling from the state council suspends a single decree against full-body swimsuits issued by the mayor in the southern resort of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice. But it is likely to set a precedent for other towns that have banned the swimwear on their beaches. In a ruling that the government had hoped would calm the growing controversy, the state council suspended a decree against full-body swimsuits issued by the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet on the Côte d’Azur. The suspension is likely to set a legal precedent for the 30 other towns that have banned the swimwear on their beaches in the past month.
The state council ruled that the mayor did not have the right to issue a burkini ban – stating that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a “proven risk” to public order. It believed that proven risk had not been demonstrated. But the French right, led by the former president Nicolas Sarkozy, stepped up its calls for a complete nationwide ban on burkinis and at least one mayor, who is based in Corsica, refused to withdraw his ban.
The bans – made in the form of short-term mayoral decrees – began to be issued in a series of beach spots following the Bastille Day attack in Nice and the murder of a priest in Normandy. The state council ruled that the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet did not have the right to ban burkinis. The court found that the anti-burkini decrees were “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental freedoms”, including the right to move around in public and the freedom of conscience. The judges stated that local authorities could only restrict individual liberties if there was a “proven risk” to public order. It ruled that a proven public order risk had not been demonstrated.
They do not explicitly use the word burkini but ban “beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation”, citing reasons such as the need to protect public order, hygiene or French laws on secularism. Crucially, the judges ruled that without any risk to public order, “the emotion and the concerns arising from terrorist attacks”, especially the attack in Nice on 14 July in which a lorry driver killed 86, were “not sufficient to legally justify a ban”.
At a hearing before the state council on Thursday, lawyers for the rights groups in the Villeneuve-Loubet case argued that the bans were feeding fear and infringe on basic freedom. Villeneuve-Loubet, where locals and police told media they had only seen one or two burkinis in the past two months, will have to immediately withdraw its ban. Its hardline rightwing mayor, Lionnel Luca, who is close to Sarkozy, said the court ruling was a boost to what he called the “rampant Islamisation [that] is progressing in our country”.
A lower court had ruled on Monday that the Villeneuve-Loubet ban was necessary to prevent public disorder. But the state council found that this did not hold up under French law. “Far from calming, this decision can only heighten passions and tensions, with the risk of trouble we wanted to avoid,” he said.
Amnesty International praised the state council’s decision, calling the decrees invasive and discriminatory. John Dalhuisen, its Europe director, said in a statement: “By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand.” Mayors in the other 30 coastal resorts that have banned burkinis – mainly on the Côte d’Azur – will now have to make their own decision whether to withdraw the decrees. They could keep their bans in place and risk being forced to suspend them by local courts or face further legal action from human rights groups.
But the mayor of Sisco, in northern Corsica, was unmoved. Ange-Pierre Vivoni, who banned the burkini earlier this month, told BFM-TV on Friday: “Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won’t withdraw it.” Ange-Pierre Vivoni, a Socialist mayor in Sisco in northern Corsica, said he would not withdraw his ban. “Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won’t withdraw it,” he told BFMTV. He issued his burkini ban on 13 August after a skirmish between villagers and Muslim families on a beach, but an ongoing investigation has suggested there was no burkini involved.
The row over burkinis had intensified after a woman in a headscarf was photographed on a beach in Nice removing a long-sleeved top while surrounded by armed police. After reports of some women being stopped by police for simply wearing a headscarf and loose clothing, criticism had grown from French rights groups who warned of the lasting impact of the bans.
The city banned the burkini on its beaches last week, following about 15 seaside areas in south-east France where mayors had done the same. Michel Tubiana, the honorary president of the French Human Rights League, one of the groups that brought the test case, said that the burkini row had left a mark on society despite the ruling. The ruling unfortunately” did not resolve everything because “the public humiliation of women” and “the political oneupmanship” over stigmatising people for their religion had cut deep.
The bans have divided France’s government and society and drawn anger abroad. The former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, campaigning for his party’s nomination to run again as president in 2017, used his first public rally this week to call for a nationwide ban on the swimsuits, while the Socialist government has become divided, with the prime minister and one of its leading feminist voices at cabinet-level taking opposing positions. Tubiana criticised the Socialist prime minister, Manuel Valls, who had supported the mayors who banned burkinis, and Sarkozy, who called the burkini a “provocation”, as well as Marine Le Pen’s far-right Front National, which is now calling for a complete ban on all religious symbols – including veils or turbans – from all public spaces.
The burkini bans have prompted a row over the French principle of laïcité – secularism – amid accusations that politicians are twisting and distorting this principle for political gain, and using it to target Muslims. Tubiana said the burkini row “will leave traces and scars in society” and the ruling was a reminder of the law for politicians who had stoked tensions in society and “poured oil on the fire and in that I include the prime minister and the former president”.
The controversy has become the focus of the battle for the presidency in 2017. Sarkozy, who is seeking his party’s nomination to run for president, is leading the charge against the full-body swimwear and seeking to ban Muslim headscarves from universities and private companies.
The left is bitterly divided on the matter: the prime minister has supported the mayors who issued anti-burkini decrees while the feminist education minister and the health minister warning of a dangerous unleashing of racist rhetoric and stigmatisation.
The president, François Hollande, appears to have sat on the fence – saying on Thursday only that life in France “supposes that everyone sticks to the rules and that there is neither provocation nor stigmatisation”.
The first short-term burkini ban was issued in Cannes at the end of July, after the murder of a priest in Normandy, which was claimed by two attackers who proclaimed allegiance to Islamic State, and the terrorist attack on Nice.
Many of the bans are due to expire in the next couple of weeks. They do not explicitly use the word burkini but instead ban “beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation”, citing reasons such as the need to protect public order, hygiene or French laws on secularism.
At the heart of the row is the French principle of laïcité – secularism – and accusations that politicians are twisting and distorting this principle for political gain and using it to target Muslims.
The French republic is built on a strict separation of church and state, intended to foster equality for all private beliefs. In theory, the state is neutral in terms of religion and allows everyone the freedom to practise their faith as long as there is no threat to public order.The French republic is built on a strict separation of church and state, intended to foster equality for all private beliefs. In theory, the state is neutral in terms of religion and allows everyone the freedom to practise their faith as long as there is no threat to public order.