“France more than ever needs peaceful relations with Muslims”, he said.
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Former French president Nicholas Sarkozy said on Monday he would change the country’s constitution to ban full-body burkini swimsuits if he is re-elected to his former role in a vote next April.
The mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, said: “We need to decide if we want a smiley, friendly version of Sharia law on our beaches or if we want the rules of the [French] Republic to be implemented”. The specific case forced the mayor in the riviera town of Villeneuve-Loubet to remove the decree.
After the verdict, Mr Spinosi said the decision “is meant to set legal precedent” and said anyone who had been fined could claim their money back. Images of armed police apparently enforcing the ban on a woman on a beach in Nice have added to the controversy.
In recent weeks, around 30 French municipalities chose to ban access to public beaches “by anyone not wearing proper attire, which is respectful of good morality and the principle of secularism and not respectful of the rules of hygiene and bathing security”. Officials on the other hand say the ban was enacted in efforts to assuage tension and growing terror-related concerns after a series of attacks shook up the country since a year ago.
With over 60 percent of the French population in favour of the ban, it isn’t hard to see why mayors of the coastal towns where the law was enforced would found it beneficial to keep the ban in place.
Nicolas Sarkozy, former head of the Les Republicains political party and former French president, attends the party’s weekend summer university youth meeting in Le Touquet, France August 27.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls backed the mayors.
He stuck to his guns on Friday evening, saying the State Council’s ruling “does not end the debate which has been opened”. “We reject this vision of France and we call women and men of this country to reject it”.
BuzzFeed’s Aisha Gani interviewed a woman wearing a burkini on the beach in Nice, and she said, “I booked a holiday to Nice to change our common holiday destination of Algeria”.
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In its ruling, the State Council said: “The emotion and the concerns arising from terrorist attacks, especially the attack in Nice on July 14, are not sufficient to legally justify a ban”.
