French mayors refuse to lift burkini ban despite court ruling
Source: The Guardian
French mayors refuse to lift burkini ban despite court ruling
Government faces dilemma over whether to enforce ruling
that banning burkinis violates fundamental freedoms
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Sunday 28 August 2016 18.14 BST
A majority of mayors who have banned burkinis in about 30 French coastal resorts are refusing to lift the restrictions despite the countrys highest administrative court ruling that the bans are illegal, leaving the state facing a dilemma about how to react.
More than 20 mayors have defiantly kept in place decrees under which municipal police can stop and fine any women in full-body swimsuits at the beach despite the ruling from the state council that the burkini bans are a serious and manifestly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms.
In a test case expected to set legal precedent, the court suspended the burkini ban in one French Riviera town, Villeneuve-Loubet, which was obliged to immediately scrap its decree. But the ruling was dismissed by many other mayors.
The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, who has called for calm and warned against stigmatising Muslims in France, is expected to make an announcement on the issue on Monday. The Green housing minister, Emmanuelle Cosse, said mayors who refused to take the court ruling into account were playing with fire.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/french-mayors-burkini-ban-court-ruling