Agnès Poirier argues, and I agree almost fully with her, that the ban against the Niqab/hijab/burqa has become a legal nightmare for Sarkozy:
If the niqab ban is passed as law, the question then arises of how you make it effective. Do you also forbid visiting tourists from Saudi Arabia from wearing it? A number of French MPs want to limit the ban to public administrations, but then a law already exists which bans all conspicuous religious symbols from public places such as hospitals, courts and schools. Or do you simply resort to a fine? Even the National Front is against a law: "it should simply be a police regulation."
The ban of the niqab: a fine legal mess.
I don't think that Sarkozy cares about the law because otherwise, he would have been mindful of these complications, which were to be expected. His goal is to change the focus of the political debate in France from his policies and their ineffectiveness to an irrational and explosive one about Frenchness and about the conviction that many French have to all their problems come from the fact that too many French are refusing to be French and to respect French values. The burqa/niqab/hijab debate provides the best way to do it because it isn't based on facts, but on fears, suspicions and ideology, which suit Sarkozy just fine because it embarrasses the Left and while reminding the right and the lower classes that he is defending their right to who they are and for the others to assimilate if they want to be good citizens of France. In short, Sarkozy must be happy in spite of the legal complications because while the French are talking about the burqa, they aren't focusing on the fact that his presidency has been a disappointment, so far.
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