A lawmaker for the anti-immigrant Northern League party Thursday urged Italy to ban on the wearing of the head-to-toe Islamic burqa in public places after a similar call from senior ministers in Germany.
"The Northern League tabled proposals in parliament a month ago to outlaw the burqa in public places in order to allow people to be recognised and to ensure greater security," said MP Paolo Grimoldi.
"We ask for our bill to be debated by lawmakers immediately after the summer recess," Grimoldi said.
"Lombardy is the only Italian region to have banned the burqa in hospitals and other public places," he said.
Elsewhere in Italy Muslims are exempt from a law forbidding people from walking around in public in headgear that covers the face - including motorbike helmets - Grimoldi noted.
A ban on the burqa in public is among 27 proposals to boost security in the wake of recent terror attacks in Germany backed by interior ministers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat party (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
Under Germany’s federal system, law and order are largely the preserve of the 16 state governments.
Tougher security measures are believed to be supported by Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, who on Thursday unveiled new anti-terror plans including to deport foreign criminals faster and to strip dual-nationality jihadists of their German citizenship.
Germany, unlike neighbouring France and Belgium has no restrictions on wearing the full burqa face-veil or the niqab in public, and de Maiziere said a ban on the full Muslim face-veil was not among the government's new plans.
Such a ban could require a change to the German constitution, which protects freedom of religious expression, some lawyers have argued.
