To loud applause, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her party members on Tuesday that Germany should ban full-face veils “wherever legally possible” and that it would not tolerate any application of Shariah law over German justice.
Accepting her party’s nomination as their candidate for another four-year term, the chancellor used the moment to broaden her stance on banning the veil, trying to deflect challenges from far-right forces that have made some of their deepest gains since World War II.
In welcoming nearly 1 million asylum seekers to Germany a year ago, Merkel emerged as a powerful voice for tolerance across a Europe gripped by anxiety over waves of arriving refugees and fears of terrorism.
Now, as anti-immigrant parties have advanced at the expense of mainstream parties, including her own, Merkel tried a tricky balancing act between holding fast to Western values and tilting farther right to avoid being outflanked by populist challengers.
In the 80-minute speech, she repeated the same catalogue of beliefs in freedom and equal treatment she had made as an implicit criticism of US president-elect Donald Trump, but also stiffened her position on the veil and suggested that Germany would be more cautious in welcoming refugees in the future.
In a clear nod to criticism that the state had appeared to lose control over its borders, the chancellor opened her 80-minute speech to the annual conference of her Christian Democratic Union with a promise that such a situation “cannot, may not and should not be repeated.”
However, the biggest applause lines concerned law and order, including a promise that Shariah law would never replace German justice — a problem that has barely arisen, but has been cast as a specter by the far-right party Alternative for Germany.
The loudest cheers came for her line on Shariah, followed by her statements on face coverings.
“Here we say ‘show your face,’” Merkel told the party. “So full veiling is not appropriate here. It should be prohibited wherever legally possible.”
She did not say what circumstances that included.
However, the language seemed more expansive than she had previously used.
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