French presidential contender Alain Juppé called on his compatriots to exercise restraint on the debate over whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear body-covering Burkinis on beaches, marking a split with primary vote rival Nicolas Sarkozy, reports GulfNews.
“Today, given the tension and suffering in French society, we’d all be well advised to stop throwing oil on the fire,” Juppé said Saturday in an interview in Le Figaro newspaper. “Let’s resist the temptation to seek laws of circumstances driven by media polemics.”
The remarks represent a clear division between Juppé and Sarkozy as they battle to become the nominee of the Republican party for the presidential election in 2017. Former president Sarkozy this week called for a nationwide ban on the Burkini.
A poll for Le Parisien and BFMTV published on Saturday showed Juppe would get 38 percent of voter support in the first round of the party’s primary, while Sarkozy would get 24 per cent. In a second-round vote, with just the two of them participating, Juppe would get 63 per cent and Sarkozy 37 per cent.
France’s top court struck down a push by local governments to ban the Burkini from the nation’s beaches on Friday, saying the Muslim-style full-body swimming outfits don’t create a public threat that justifies impinging on freedom of religion.
The decision dealt specifically with a law in Villeneuve-Loubet on the Riviera but sets a legal precedent against similar bans in at least 31 beach towns, mostly run by rightist mayors. The case was brought by a human rights organisation and a group that monitors anti-Islamic speech.
The local bans, as well as video footage of police standing over a woman on a beach as she removed a long-sleeved shirt, split the government and were widely covered - and widely ridiculed by media around the world. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among leaders who criticised the prohibitions.