Burkinis must be banned throughout France, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy said at his first campaign rally for the 2017 presidential election on Thursday.
The statements were made before the country’s highest administrative court suspended a ban on the swimwear in a town in the southern part of the country.
Hundreds of supporters waving French flags chanted his name and applauded as Mr. Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012 before losing an election to Socialist Francois Hollande, promised to protect the French people.
“I will be the President that re-establishes the authority of the state,” Mr. Sarkozy told supporters packing a sports hall in Chateaurenard.
“I refuse to let the burkini impose itself in French beaches and swimming pools...there must be a law to ban it throughout the Republic's territory,” he said. Security and immigration are now central to the presidential election campaign and Mr. Sarkozy is tapping into the worries of voters on the right with a hardline platform of law and order.
“In my speech there is no fear, there is no hatred, there is just common sense,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “The French people are not fascist because they consider there are security problems.” — Reuters
