Chega’s initiative, based largely on the example of France, approved in Parliament with the support of the rest of the right. Fine of up to 4000 euros, imprisonment of up to three years and some exceptions are provided for in the bill.
PSD, IL and CDS-PP approved this Friday, in general, the Chega bill that aims to ban the wearing of burqas in public spacesinvoking women’s rights and security issues.
The initiative received favorable votes from Chega, PSD, IL and CDS-PP, votes against from PS, Livre, BE and PCPand so on abstention from PAN and JPP.
With this initiative, Chega proposes that it be “the use, in public spaces, of clothing designed to hide or obstruct the display of the face is prohibited”with some exceptions. At the opening of the debate, the leader of Chega specified that the objective is to prohibit “women from wearing burqas in Portugal” and addressed immigrants in particular.
Anyone who does not comply with the new rules will be punished with a fine which can range from 200 to 2,000 euros, “in case of negligence”. But these values rise to between 400 and 4.000 euros if the existence of fraud is confirmed. And whoever, “by threat, violence, embarrassment, abuse of authority or abuse of power, because of their sex, forces one or more people to hide their face”, will be punished with prison sentence of up to three years or a fine, if there are no aggravating circumstances.
The exceptions
Chega foresees in some exceptions to the ban that was approved this Friday.
The prohibition “does not apply” whenever the hiding of the face “is duly justified for health reasons or professional, artistic, entertainment or advertising reasons” and “the hiding of the face for reasons related to safety or due to weather conditions or whenever this arises from a legal provision that allows it” will be permitted.
The impediment also “does not apply to airplanes or in diplomatic and consular installations” and provides that faces “may also be covered in places of worship and other sacred places”.
The secular state and the example of several European countries
In the initiative, Chega recalls that the State is secular and, as such, religious symbols should not be adopted and permitted in public institutions.
“As is well known, the State – by not adopting any religion and exempting itself from
pronounce on religious issues 1 – is secular”, reads in Bill no. 47/XVI/1.ª: “If this is the case, that is, if the State is secular, thus not belonging to any religion, reasons cannot be reached why religious symbols can be adopted and allowed to be displayed in public institutions, such as non-religious schools, hospitals,
public transport and other places governed or belonging to the State.”
Chega also states that “the Republic must be seen with an open face, as it is based on union around common values and the construction of a
shared destiny, with no practices of exclusion and rejection being acceptable,
regardless of pretexts or methods.”
“In the aforementioned dimension, regarding the safety of citizens, There are several European countries that have adopted the banpartial or not, of the obstacle to identification through the use of burkas, niqabs, other Islamic religious costumes and other clothing that culminates in such an impediment to exhibition”, reads the bill, which gives the example, in addition to the French, of Dutch, Danish, Austrian, Bulgarian, Belgian and Italian legislation.
Party reactions
While IL and CDS-PP declared support for Chega’s parliamentary initiative which “prohibits the hiding of the face in public spaces, with certain exceptions”, the PSD expressed itself “available to follow this path”, but argued that “the text presented can and should be improved in terms of specialty”.
On the left, the PS argued that care must be taken when drafting laws, in a context in which the extreme right wants to “direct hatred” against a “specific target”, in this case the Muslim community, PCP and BE contested the proposal, while Livre accused Chega of presenting a purposefully “poorly done” project and therefore did not want to value this debate.
Ventura denounces hypocrisy and gives France as an example
“Whoever arrives in Portugal, wherever they come from, whatever region they come from, with whatever customs they have or whatever religion they have, must above all comply with, respect and ensure respect for the customs of this country and the values of this country”, defended Ventura.
André Ventura considered that a woman “forced to wear a burqa” ceases to be “free and independent, she becomes an object” and accused the left of hypocrisy for defending women’s rights but accepting “a culture that oppresses them”.
The president of Chega pointed out that “several European countries have already moved towards banning burqas in public spaces” and said that the European Court of Human Rights decided that French law in the same sense does not contradict the European Convention on Human Rights.
At the end of the debate, Madalena Cordeiro, also from Chega, said from the stand: “This is not Bangladesh where you do everything as you please”. The deputy also said that “no more pretending that all cultures are the same”.
What’s next
The diploma will now be debated in the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees and may undergo changes before returning to the plenary for the final global vote.
The initiative will only come into force 30 days after it is published in the Diário da República, after promulgation by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The measures should then be valid in all public spaces, that is, “public roads, as well as places open to the public, used for public service”, and “in all places where services are provided that are generally accessible to all citizens”, extending to “events or sporting practices and demonstrations”.
