27 August 2016, 13:21 GMT
PARIS (Sputnik) — The law banning the Muslim full-body burkini swimsuits would contradict the French Constitution and provoke tensions in the society, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Sunday.
"This law would be unconstitutional, ineffective and would cause hostility and tensions… I believe in the power of dialogue rather than in dangerous strategy of separation," Cazeneuve told La Croix magazine in an interview.
According to the minister, the French authorities and Muslims should move together toward gender equality, inviolability of republican principles and tolerance.
Earlier this summer, burkinis were banned from municipal beaches in about 30 French towns, including Nice that suffered from a terrorist attack in July that killed 84 people. Some politicians in the country called to introduce a nationwide ban on burkinis.
