(Swiss Info) Parliament has recommended that voters reject a popular initiative calling for a nationwide ban on face-covering headgear. Both chambers agree that it should be left to cantons to decide on the matter.
On Wednesday the House of Representatives voted to back a counter-proposal drawn up by the government last year. This would continue with the status quo of cantons setting their own rules on burkas and niqabs but with the concession that people should be obliged to show their faces for identity checks across the country.
Two cantons, Ticino and St Gallen, have already voted to apply a ban on full face coverings.
Parliamentarians on Wednesday argued that existing laws were sufficient to protect women from being forced to cover their faces in public.
(Text updated)
