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GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER Thomas de Maiziere has come out in favour of a partial burqa ban amid a fierce national debate on integration.
“We agree that we reject the burqa, we agree that we want to introduce a legal requirement to show one’s face in places where it is necessary for our society’s coexistence — at the wheel, at public offices, at the registry office, in schools and universities, in the civil service, in court,” he said after a meeting with regional counterparts from his conservative party.
De Maiziere told public television that the full face veil “does not belong in our cosmopolitan country”.
“We want to show our faces to each other and that is why we agree that we reject this – the question is how we put this into law,” he said.
Blanket ban
De Maiziere indicated that outlawing the burqa only under certain circumstances — as opposed the blanket ban favoured by the hard right of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Union bloc — would be “likely to win approval” in parliament.
Merkel’s right-left “grand coalition” holds an overwhelming majority in the Bundestag lower house.
De Maiziere’s position represents a compromise with hardliners ahead of two key state elections next month in which the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party looks set to make strong gains.
Just last week he had rejected a call from conservative state interior ministers for a burqa ban, saying: “We can’t ban everything that we reject, and I reject the wearing of the burqa.”
Deportations of criminal migrants
He made the comments on 11 August as he unveiled tough new anti-terror measures after two attacks in Germany last month claimed by the Islamic State group.
The measures included a controversial proposal to strip jihadist fighters of their German nationality.
The security package also calls for deportations of convicted criminal migrants to be sped up and police resources to be boosted.
The AfD in particular has attempted to link the record influx of migrants and refugees, many from the Middle East, to Germany last year with an increased threat of terrorism — an argument Merkel sharply rejected this week on the campaign trail in her home district.
- © AFP 2016.
Ok the journal has mentioned snow so where’s the video of ya man falling on his arse?!
Tis slush at best! Any self-respecting snow’s gotta stick!
Could have picked a better time to switch on the vacuum cleaner!!!
Link to the guy slipping on ice. Never gets stale.
http://youtu.be/RZvCK2o6Zbo
It just had to be Meath, they are in a world of their own up there.
In Meath and all I see is rain :(
@ siobhan, That’s because you’re so hot it melts before it gets near you ;)
Niiice. Modern day Romeo right here
Smoooth Mark, very smooth…..
1 cm of snow in Ireland/ London: airports closed, no shops delivery, schools closed-total disaster. Oslo airport: 50 cm of snow and all flights on the time. Yes, it’s a big suprise in the last week of December you can see snow in North Europe… If the climate changes, all of us should expect winters in Ireland with average -20 C deg. (Like in continental Europe in 18 century-called “small Ice Age”-sun activity was very low). Baltic Sea was frozen per 12 months in a year and there was a pub on ice, in the middle of the sea. It may happen sooner than you think. Sciencists said it may happen in the next 10 years (they discovered sun activity becames very low lately). Anyway, Irish and Polish will survive here-a lot of good vodka and positive attitude let us survive :-D
Jaysis Amaciej. Did Santa not bring you that toy you wanted?
The records show that 2014 will have been the hottest year globally since records began.
As regards the freak cold some regions have experienced, I think meteorologists now understand that because the Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the world, the warm air disrupts weather (eg the polar vortex), and that is what has caused the exceptional freezing weather we have seen channelled down to northern Europe and the US. All part o what is being called global ‘weirding’ of the weather.
We may be in for some of this if the correct confluence of conditions arise. But overall, the whole planet is warming at an alarming rate. Let’s hope we are all smart enough to push for that temperature rise to be kept as low as possible so we can avoid runaway climate change.
We get the wrong sort of snow apparently
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
Loving it
White rain ,is all it is
Is there enough to build a snowman? Methinks not!
Maciej- well he can burn the coal santa gave him to keep warm when it goes to -20 – think of it this way Maciej u have a whole year to try be good to make up for last year
It’s not sticking though is it? Get it right up ya
It’s that fine snow that soaks ya through…
Its Snowing in Hucknall, Nottingham.
That’s up in Moylough, strange things happen up there
Wow snow who cares
have your say