BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who last year opened the door to nearly 1 million mostly Muslim migrants, staked out a tough new stance on conservative Islam on Tuesday, including her first direct call for a widespread ban on “full veil” religious coverings.
Her call could add Germany to the growing list of European nations imposing some restrictions on Islamic coverings as debates sharpen across the continent over religious tolerance, perceived threats to European identity and possible security threats from Islamists.
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It could also signal a pragmatic shift to the right for Merkel. In the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the tolerant Merkel became a symbol of what’s left of liberal democracy. But her handling of the refugee crisis — which hit her approval ratings and caused internal party dissent — is seen as a critical weakness as she launches her bid to win a fourth term next year.
Merkel on Tuesday issued a reminder that she is still a conservative politician. Speaking to a cheering conference of her center-right Christian Democratic Union, she used her strongest language yet to back a ban on Islamic coverings first proposed by conservative elements in her party. Details are still being discussed, but some are calling for a law that would make it a regulatory offense for women to cover their faces in courtrooms, administrative buildings and schools, as well as while driving or attending demonstrations.
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“The full veil is not appropriate here. It should be banned wherever it’s legally possible,” Merkel said.
Women in Germany’s Muslim community of 4.7 million who actually wear a full burqa — or a loose veil that covers the entire body with a thin eye slit or mesh – are exceedingly rare. Some experts suggest there may be only a few hundred at most.
But bans on such garments are being increasingly seen as a powerful political message.
Merkel has previously decried full Muslim veils as a hindrance to migrant assimilation. But her words at the party conference — reaffirming her as its candidate and leader — seemed aimed to appease critics who have charged her with recklessly opening the door to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war. On Tuesday, she also criticized the alleged spread of Islamic sharia law.
“We don’t want any parallel societies,” she said. “Our law takes precedence before tribal rules, codes of honor and sharia.”
As has happened in France and elsewhere, the law planned in Germany would not refer specifically to conservative Muslims, but it would clearly be aimed at them.
Yet strong differences remain within Merkel’s party about how far such a law should go. Officials at various German ministries are already drafting a law that would make it an offense for civil servant to wear garments that “make open communication more difficult or impossible.” The law would also impose fines on women who refuse to take off covering veils to allow law enforcement officials to compare their faces with photo IDs.
But some are calling for an even broader ban before a bill is submitted to parliament in the coming weeks.
“We are still fighting over the question of what is legally possible,” CDU lawmaker Jens Spahn told public radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. “And I would actually like to ban it everywhere. I don’t want to see the full veil — no niqab, no burqa, in public life in Germany.”
Since the height of the refugee crisis last year, Merkel has taken steps to stem the tide of migrants, including negotiating a deal with Turkey earlier this year to block more asylum seekers from crossing into Europe. On Tuesday, she reiterated that she would attempt to thwart any new wave of refugees — many of them seeking to reach the West from war-ravaged places such as Syria and Iraq.
“A situation like the one in the late summer of 2015 cannot, should not and must not be repeated,” she said. “That was and is our, and my, declared political aim.”
The call to ban coverings echoes laws in France and other European nations to put restrictions on full-face coverings such as the burqa or other Islamic traditional garb for women such as the niqab, which shows only the eyes.
In 2004, the French government passed a highly controversial law banning any overt religious symbols from schools, which critics interpreted as a ban on Muslim headscarves by another name. In 2010, the government passed another law, banning outright any face-covering garments from public spaces, arguing that these garments violate individual freedoms, especially of women.
The European Court of Human Rights upheld the latter law in 2014 after it was challenged by a 24-year-old Muslim woman. The court agreed with the French government that the so-called “burqa ban” made it easier for citizens to “live together.”
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This summer, roughly 30 French towns and villages banned the “burkini,” a swimsuit designed to allow Muslim women to enjoy the beach while observing traditional codes of modesty. Manuel Valls, now a Socialist Party candidate for the French presidency, called the burkini a “provocation” and an insult to France’s strict interpretation of secularism. French courts have since overruled a number of the burkini bans.
But Muslims often say that these restrictions — all carried out in the name of secularism — are hypocritical, targeting one particular group in a society that in theory is committed to liberty, equality and fraternity. France’s public holidays, they say, are all Christian in origin, and secularism often becomes a means of attacking Islam in a country still reeling from a string of terrorist attacks committed by Islamic State militants.
Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin and James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.
