Germany’s Angel Merkel endorses burqa ban

Meeting at a party convention in the city of Essen, Germany’s Christian Democrats gave Angela Merkel another ringing endorsement as leader, winning the vote of nearly ninety per cent of delegates.

The possibility of imposing a ban on the modest Muslim garment cropped up in August, when Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s interior minister, proposed a partial ban on the controversial garment.

After her speech, 89.5% of the CDU delegates re-elected Merkel as their party leader – the lowest endorsement of her tenure as chancellor.

Merkel, however, also attacked the rise of right-wing populists in Germany, hitting out at opponents of her liberal refugee policy staking a claim to define German national identity.

Merkel is showing she’s willing to shade further to the right to try and get a fourth term after her party was soundly defeated in recent local elections.

“The 2017 election will be more hard than any election before, at least since German reunification”, Ms Merkel said, citing the “strong polarisation of our society”.

She has seen her approval ratings slip since her decision to allow about a million asylum seekers into Germany during last year’s Europe-wide migrant crisis.

Merkel has also expressed an intention to seek a fourth term as chancellor in next year’s German elections.

The statements are clearly part of a strategy to counter the rising wave of populism that has swept away some of her allies overseas and is threatening to eat away at her party’s base.

There was considerable anticipation of how delegates at the conference would receive Merkel’s comments on the refugee influx, which had created controversy within the party ranks.

The burqa ban may or may not work at stopping some of the violence, but as a political move, it will help her numbers greatly.

In her speech to the almost 1,000 delegates at the annual convention of the party, Merkel had committed her party to a tough federal election campaign in the coming year.

Polls show a solid lead for the party, though their support is well short of the 41.5 per cent they won in Germany’s 2013 election. But with nine months or more to go before the elections, CDU deputy chairman Julia Kloeckner said the party must not leave any gaps for the Alternative for Germany party to exploit.