Swedish deputy PM says the country must ban the burqa ‘while we can’ and condemns ‘failed integration’

Sweden’s deputy prime minister has criticized the country’s ‘failed integration’ and called for a burqa ban ‘while we can’.

Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrats, has suggested that the Scandinavian country should ban women from wearing burqas and veils in public and that this is an unwelcome ‘oppression’.

He added that the headscarf should be banned in public areas such as streets and squares, shopping malls and health facilities.

Local municipalities in Sweden have previously tried to impose restrictions on the burqa, including in schools, but there are currently no nationwide restrictions.

Ms Busch, who also serves as the country’s Minister of Energy and Minister of Trade and Industry, said she believed the headscarf was incompatible with Swedish society and was ‘an expression of the strict interpretation of Islam practiced in totalitarian states such as Iran and Afghanistan’.

‘If you are on the street, shopping in the square, in the Ica store or taking the children to the health center, you should be able to meet in real terms. “Then I don’t want to meet someone who covers his entire face,” the Swedish outlet told the outlet. Aftonbladet.

The proposal would be part of an effort to increase ‘social cohesion’ in the country where ‘integration has failed’.

‘It is a very naïve liberalism or lax social policy that has brought Sweden to the situation we are in today,’ Ms. Busch added.

He said around 70,000 women in the Nordic countries suffered from female genital mutilation and that ‘while being Muslim in Sweden is welcome… if you are already in the country you have to adapt to it’.

Liberal Party leader and Minister of Education and Integration Simona Mohamsson also supported the ban, stating that it was important to punish “those who practice religious oppression” such as compulsory veiling.

Ms. Busch has previously called for a ban on headscarves for kindergarten and primary school children in order to protect girls’ physical and educational rights.

The Christian Democrats, who are in coalition with the Liberal Party and the Moderate Party, will consider banning the burqa and veil at their national congress in November.

The proposal comes after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called for a ban on burqas and niqabs in public places in Italy and a £2,600 fine to stop ‘Islamic separatism’.

The bill, submitted to parliament on Wednesday by the Italian prime minister’s Brothers of Italy party, foresees fines of between 260 and 2,600 pounds for those who wear this clothing in shops, offices, schools and universities.

Additionally, criminal sanctions will be introduced for ‘cultural crimes’, including virginity testing, and penalties for forced marriages will be increased to up to 10 years in prison, with religious oppression grounds for prosecution.

The party claims the bill will combat ‘religious radicalization and religiously motivated hatred’.

Christian Democrats leader Ebba Busch said the Scandinavian country should ban women from wearing burqas and veils in public.

In the introduction to the draft law, it was stated that ‘The spread of Islamic fundamentalism… undeniably constitutes the breeding ground for Islamist terrorism’.

France became the first European country to impose a nationwide burqa ban in 2011.

Austria, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands have since followed suit and implemented some form of ban.

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly upheld the bans; Nigel Farage had previously described the veil as ‘anti-British’.