Bernard Cazeneuve says law prohibiting the full-body swimwear would stoke tensions when the country needs ‘healing’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A law banning the full-body burkini swimsuit in France would stoke tensions between communities and would be both unconstitutional and ineffective, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said.

France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled on Friday against a decision by the mayor of the resort town of Villeneuve-Loubet to ban the burkini .

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The ruling may set a precedent for the dozens of French towns that have also ordered burkini bans. After the ruling some mayors said they would refuse to lift the bans.

The issue has become politically charged at the start of party primaries ahead of next year’s presidential election in France, with several leaders on the right and far-right calling for a law prohibiting the full-body swimming costume worn by some Muslim women.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy who is staging a political comeback and is seeking the ticket of the conservative Les Republicains in primaries set for November, has called for a law allowing mayors to ban the burkini.

But Cazeneuve said in an interview with La Croix newspaper on Sunday that such a law was unlikely under the current socialist government.

“The government ... refuses to legislate on this because a law would be unconstitutional, ineffective and likely to create antagonism and irreparable tensions,” he said.

“We do not need a new law. Current laws clearly lay out France’s secularism.”

However, Cazeneuve said Muslims must “continue to engage with us over gender equality, the inviolate nature of the principles of the French Republic, and tolerance in order to live together in peace”.

He also criticised the opposition for trying to earn political points from the controversy at a time when the country has been rattled by a string of deadly attacks claimed by Islamic State militants.

“Certain opposition leaders are making a lot of noise. They think that in the current context of terror threats, we can abandon the fundamental principles of law as embodied in the Constitution,” he said, warning that such a move would be “a serious mistake”.

The debate was fuelled by footage of police trying to enforce the ban on a woman on a beach in Nice.

The controversy, coupled with several Islamist militant attacks in France since January 2015, has filtered into early campaigning for the presidential election in April 2017, making French cultural identity and security highly-charged issues in the political debates.

“France needs healing and people coming together, not divisive outbursts by those contesting in primaries,” Cazeneuve said.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report