French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Wednesday he supported the ban issued in several parts of the country against the burkini, but ruled out government legislation on the matter.

Valls said in an interview with La Provence newspaper that general laws dictating clothes are not a solution.

The Prime Minister’s comments arrive in the wake of an all-out beach brawl in Corsica, where tourists taking pictures of burkini-wearing got into a heated discussion with locals.

According to a report filed by the BBC, the argument escalated into an out-of-control fight. Witnesses reported seeing bottles and rocks flying; attackers armed with hatchets were also seen.

Riot control officers from the Gendarmerie National (military police) were deployed to the beach. In the end, five people were rushed to the hospital and three cars were burned.

French law bans the niqab (a veil worn by some Muslim women in public, covering all of the face apart from the eyes) in the country’s streets, while the veil and other religious symbols are prohibited in educational centers.

The debate on the burkini (swimsuit for Muslim women that covers the entire body except the face, hands and feet) began earlier this month with the cancellation of a day exclusively for women at a water park near Marseille.

The garment was subsequently banned in Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet, Sisco and Le Touquet.

Valls said he understood the mayors who, during these tense times, were looking to avoid public order problems and he supported their decisions to ban the garment.

For the prime minister, the burkini is an expression of a political and counter-society project founded mainly on the enslavement of women. EFE

Paris, Aug 17 (EFE)