VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHCP #0062/01 0341710
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 031710Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5464

UNCLAS COPENHAGEN 000062 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL DA
SUBJECT: (SBU) BURQA:  PM TRIES TO END DEBATE, DPP 
STOKES IT 
 
(U)  SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED--NOT FOR INTERNET 
DISTRIBUTION. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary and Introduction:  The Government 
and opposition agree that a complete ban on wearing 
face-covering garments such as the burqa or niqab 
would be unconstitutional.  At the same time, the 
Government associates such garments with an agenda 
that is oppressive to women and thus contrary to 
Danish values.  The topic gets a disproportionate 
amount of press in Denmark; the Prime Minister's 
Office has tried to close debate and restore 
Government unity on the matter by instructing public 
employers to enforce existing rules against wearing 
the burqa/niqab in public-sector work places, and by 
striving to increase the penalties for coercing 
anyone into wearing them.  The right-wing Danish 
People's Party (DPP, on whose support the Government 
depends) intends to pursue a total ban.  Meanwhile, controversial 
statements about Muslims by DPP 
representatives could affect the party's reputation 
and even the Government's.  End Summary and 
Introduction. 
 
(SBU) PM SEEKS TO CLOSE BURQA BAN DEBATE 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The office of Danish Prime Minister Lars 
Loekke Rasmussen on January 28 issued a press release 
on the outcome of a working group on the use of burqas 
and niqabs in Denmark, concluding:  "The Government is determined to 
fight the view on(...) women which the 
burqa and the niqab symbolize.  The Government 
therefore urges that existing rules and possibilities 
for actually limiting the use of burqas and niqabs be 
applied to the fullest possible extent."  The 
ministers of Finance, Interior and Social Affairs were instructed to 
organize briefings of employers in the 
national, regional and municipal governments:  "All 
public sector work places must be made aware of 
existing rules and possibilities, so that burqas and 
niqabs are not worn in central government, regional 
or municipal work places." 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Existing rules in this area are almost 
exclusively applied in a labor market context, to the 
effect that almost all public sectors jobs - 
especially those involving contact with clients - 
require full facial visibility.  Employers in both the 
public and private sectors enjoy extensive freedom to 
determine dress-code requirements for employees; in 
very few cases will an employer allow the use of 
garments covering the face, which in practice excludes 
burqa- and niqab-wearing women from the Danish labor 
market.  However, there is no blanket ban on wearing 
the burqa or niqab in public; the Government and the parliamentary 
opposition agree such a total ban would 
be unconstitutional. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  In addition, the PM's Office announced 
intent to amend the criminal code to double prison 
sentences for those forcing others to wear garments 
covering the face.  It also intends to change the 
Administration of Justice Act so that only in rare 
cases allowed by the court can witnesses in 
courtrooms cover their face. 
 
(SBU) DPP AND CONSERVATIVES FIGHTING FOR AGENDA 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  The Government's parliamentary support 
party, the Danish People's Party (DPP), has 
repeatedly proposed a comprehensive ban against 
wearing the burqa/niqab in public.  The real challenge 
for the Prime Minister started last summer when his 
junior coalition partner the Conservatives proposed a comprehensive 
reform of integration policy that 
included a total 'burqa ban.'  The proposal triggered 
immediate opposition in the PM's Liberal Party 
'Venstre,' and the Conservatives were embarrassed when 
experts in the Justice Ministry (whose Minister Brian 
Mikkelsen is a Conservative) determined that a total 
ban would violate the constitution.  The latest moves 
by the PM's Office are an attempt to restore unity to 
the ruling coalition; the Conservatives trumpeted them 
as a "huge victory." 
 
(SBU) DPP MP OFFENDS MUSLIMS, RISKS HURTING COALITION 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In a January 23 op-ed, DPP MP - and vicar - 
Jesper Langballe wrote: "Of course... should not have 
said that there are Muslim fathers who rape their 
daughters, when rather the truth seems to be that 
they merely kill the daughters (the so-called honor 
killings) - and otherwise turn the blind eye to rape 
by uncles." 
 
¶7. (SBU) The PM strongly distanced himself from 
Langballe's statement, when asked about it at his 
weekly press briefing January 25.  DPP leader Pia 
Kjaersgaard too rejected the statement shortly 
afterwards, calling it "stupid," while an apologetic 
Langballe regretted any offensive effect of an ill- 
considered humorous slant in his wording.  Both 
insisted on their right to discuss the topic of honor 
killings, however.  DPP foreign policy spokesman 
Soeren Espersen stressed to Poloff and Pol FSN January 
28 that Langballe's remarks did not represent the 
party's position but were "stupid" and embarrassing, 
coming from a generally intelligent and experienced 
politician.  Espersen had begun his meeting with the 
Embassy by good-naturedly pointing to a newspaper 
article calling him a "fool" - he was making the point 
that Danish culture is used to rough-and-tumble verbal 
jousting and expects people to keep a sense of humor 
about it. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Meanwhile, DPP MP Christian H. Hansen quit 
the party last week to go independent, objecting to 
what he perceived as excessive anti-Muslim rhetoric. 
Hansen's defection does not alter the balance of 
power, as he pledged to continue to support the 
Government.  Some commentators saw the DPP's continued 
lack of discipline in the public debate as recalling 
the image of a gathering of 'village fools' - that was 
the commonly-used label for the Progress Party that 
Pia Kjaersgaard quit in 1995 to form the DPP, which 
she has labored hard to make respectable.  While 
Muslim-bashing plays to the DPP's base, the extremist 
views expressed by some DPP representatives have the 
potential of scaring away traditionally moderate, 
tolerant, and humanitarian-minded right-of-center 
voters and thus hurting the right-of-center ruling 
coalition at the next election. 
 
FULTON