Austria’s coalition government announced a plan to ban Muslim face-covering veils, in what appears to be part of a package of policies aimed at countering the rise of the far-right Freedom Party, the British newspaper Independent reported on Tuesday.
The anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO) has topped opinion polls for months, boosted by the influx of more than a million migrants into Europe in the past two years and concerns over their impact on jobs and security. Last month the FPO candidate came close to winning Austria’s presidential election.