(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday he would change the country’s constitution to ban full-body burkini swimsuits if he is re-elected to his former role in a vote next April.
Positioning himself as a defender of French values and tough on immigration, the conservative said last week that he would impose a nationwide ban on the swimwear that has divided the Socialist-led government and dominated French political debate through much of August.
France's highest administrative court on Friday decided to suspend the ban in some 15 towns across France.
The ruling came after images of two police forces enforcing the ban on a woman in the southern city of Nice stirred huge public anger.
Rights groups say the ban violates basic freedoms of dress, religious expression and movement and foments religious tensions in France.
Sarkozy, who has positioned himself as a defender of French values and tough on immigration, said last week that he would impose a nationwide ban on burkini, adding that the ban will be needed to ensure the public order.
Last week, Sarkozy formally announced his decision to run for the next presidential election which will be held next year. He said he had felt the need to run again for the presidency in the historically tough time that France is facing.
The 61-year-old conservative politician said the “top battle” for the French in the coming year would be how “to defend our lifestyle without being tempted to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world.”
Sarkozy, who lost the presidential election to Francois Hollande in 2012 after his first term, has to win the primaries organized by the French right in November before he can stand an election. His main rival is Alain Juppe, former prime minister and the favorite in the polls.
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