Swiss canton votes overwhelmingly in favor of ban on burqa

A region of Switzerland will ban the burqa after citizens voted overwhelmingly in favor of banning all facial protective clothing in public places.

Official results released Sunday showed that 67% of voters in St. Gallen, in northeastern Switzerland, had voted for the introduction of the new law. About 36% of the people eligible for the referendum voted.

The election results for St. Gallen will now follow the example of Ticino, a southern canton of the country, which introduced a similar law two years ago. Two other cantons, meanwhile, rejected the introduction of a ban.

By the end of 2017, lawmakers of St. Gallen have adopted a new regulation that makes the person who covers their face in public punishable by a fine.

"Anyone who makes himself unrecognizable by covering his face in a public space and thus endangers public safety or social and religious peace will be fined," says the text, reported by Agence France- Press.

The law received strong support from the center parties and right-wing populist parties and passed the regional parliament but was put to a referendum after pressure from the Young Socialists and the Green Party.

People walk by election campaign posters against the facilitated reading of naturalization "Uncontrolled naturalization? No, with the illustration of a woman wearing a burka, at a Zurich train station, on February 7, 2017. On September 23, 2018, voters from the canton of St. Gallen voted in favor of the company. ban on the burqa. Michael Buholzer / AFP / Getty Images

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Last year, the Swiss government opposed the introduction of a national ban on the burqa, saying that each region should determine the measures it deems appropriate.

However, the question could now be raised again with the national government after the populist populist right-wing party gathered the 100,000 signatures necessary to submit any subject to a referendum in Switzerland.

Muslims make up about 5% of the Swiss population.

The Islamic Central Council, the largest Islamic organization in Switzerland, said it would closely monitor the implementation of the ban and consider prosecution if necessary, recommending that women continue to cover their faces, reported Reuters.

Last month, Denmark passed a new law banning the wearing of face-covering clothing in public, following the approach adopted by Belgium, Germany, Austria and France.

All four countries have bans or partial bans on the full-face veil and the burqa – which covers the entire face – or a niqab worn in public. A first sanction is a fine of 1,000 kroner (155 dollars) in Denmark, while repeat offenders may be fined up to 10 times.

However, the ban has been sharply criticized by Muslim women's rights groups and civil rights activists, who argue that the law legitimizes religious discrimination.