In Geneva, the UDC has once again failed to ban the wearing of burkinis in public swimming pools. The Grand Council refused to discuss its bill on swimming pools (illustration).
Photo: KEYSTONE/EPA/STEPHANIE PILICK
In Geneva, the UDC has once again failed to ban the wearing of burkinis in public swimming pools. By 54 no, 33 yes and 3 abstentions, the Grand Council refused on Thursday to discuss its bill on swimming pools.
At the beginning of 2023, the UDC section of the City of Geneva launched a referendum against the authorization of the wearing of the burkini in municipal swimming pools, but it did not manage to collect enough valid signatures. The cantonal UDC then tabled a bill aimed at banning the burkini, a text which is still in committee. Hence this proposal to legislate on swimming pools.
“Allowing the burkini is allowing communitarianism, it is contrary to secularism and it is insulting to women,” argued UDC deputy Guy Mettan, minority rapporteur. An opinion shared by The Center and a good part of the PLR, which believes ‘that the burkini has no place in our society’, as declared by liberal-radical Murat-Julian Alder.
Unconstitutional
-In the opposing ranks, the majority rapporteur, the PLR Alexis Barbey, denounced the UDC’s way of serving its interests by highlighting a subject which has not generated conflict in the municipalities which authorize the burkini. Most of the other parties defended municipal autonomy in the management of their infrastructure.
Responsible for monitoring the municipalities, State Councilor Carole-Anne Kast noted that this bill is doubly unconstitutional. It violates municipal autonomy on the one hand and, on the other, the guarantee of private property, since it would also apply to private swimming pools open to the public.
/ATS
Swiss
