Taking a hard line on a debate that has agitated France over the past weeks, Sarkozy told supporters in Chateaurenard, his first rally for the 2017 election, that the full-body swimwear known as the burkini should be banned throughout the country.
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The bans have divided France’s government and society and drawn anger overseas, especially after images circulated online showing police appearing to force a Muslim woman to take off her tunic.
France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat, was meeting on Thursday to consider a complaint against the ban in one Mediterranean town.
Some fear that burkini bans in several French towns are worsening religious tensions.
“Yesterday when I saw the images of the woman on the beach I felt sick to my stomach”, said Esmat Jeraj, one of the organisers.
“I will be the president that re-establishes the authority of the state”, Sarkozy told a crowd of more than 2,000 packing a sports hall in Chateaurenard, a Provence town where his Les Republicains beat the far-right Front National (FN) in regional elections previous year.
The former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who this week launched his bid to regain the presidency, has described the burkini as a “provocation”.
The ban before the court doesn’t actually mention the word burqini, like majority.
Judges in Nice this week insisted the ban was “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” following the deaths of 86 people in a lorry attack in the city claimed by Islamic State.
The vague wording of the prohibitions has caused confusion.
Zanetti believes that the burkini should not be linked with Islamic extremism as her intention when she invented the swimwear was to “give people the freedom of choice”.
Apart from the incident featured in the photographs in Nice, a 34-year-old mother of two told AFP on Tuesday she had been fined on the beach in the resort of Cannes wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.
Ipsos pollsters’ analyst Jérôme Fourquet said that these figures mirrored a survey conducted in April a year ago, in which 63% of people surveyed said they were opposed to the wearing of the headscarf or the veil.
“Full stop. It’s as simple as that”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also waded into the row, as he travelled to Paris to discuss community integration and condemn the ban.
In London, demonstrators created a makeshift beach Thursday outside the French Embassy for a “Wear what you want beach party”.
Amnesty International called for the ban to be lifted immediately, saying it was “fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance”.
“These bans do nothing to increase public safety, but do a lot to promote public humiliation”, said the group’s Europe director John Dalhuisen.
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France is a secular country, which means its constitution demands religion be totally separated from public life.
