Lleida bans the burqa with fines up to €750 as Europe's ban map widens
September 26, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Lleida City Council passed a ban on face-covering garments in public on September 25 with 16 votes in favour, carrying fines of €400 to €750, making it the first Spanish city with such a rule. France, Belgium, Denmark, Austria and Portugal already have national bans.
Sixteen votes on September 25 made Lleida the first city in Spain to approve a ban on clothing that fully covers the face in public spaces, with fines of between €400 and €750 for breaches, according to todoalicante.es, Catalan News and the Brussels Signal.
The measure is part of a new Civic Conduct and Coexistence Ordinance that replaces rules in force since 2007. It came from Socialist Mayor Fèlix Larrosa and passed with the backing of the governing Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Together for Catalonia (Junts) and Vox. The People's Party (PP), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the left-wing Comú de Lleida voted against. The ordinance does not name the burqa or niqab. Article 12, as reported by Brussels Signal, bans "any clothing that prevents identification by covering the face entirely" and classes violations as minor offences.
Larrosa framed the ban on the grounds of women's rights and civic behaviour rather than public security. Council officials said the aim was to prevent women from being isolated from city life. That framing matters legally: Spain's Supreme Court annulled a previous Lleida face-veil rule in February 2013 on the grounds that restricting religious freedom required an act of national parliament, not a municipal ordinance. Larrosa is betting that the new framing will survive the same scrutiny.
The PP voted against from the right, arguing, per Catalan News, that the exemptions built into the text meant the ordinance "permits and regulates" face veils rather than banning them. Exemptions cover places of worship, situations where face-covering is an accepted social custom, and cases where covering the face is done "in the exercise of a fundamental right."
The ordinance has received only initial approval and must still complete its full administrative procedure, according to Brussels Signal. A legal challenge remains possible. Junts, whose five councillors proved decisive, secured 31 of its 55 proposed amendments, including one that subjects the ban to current legislation in anticipation of possible national rules.
The vote came seven months after Spain's Congress rejected a Vox bill for a nationwide ban on February 17, by 177 votes to 170, according to Brussels Signal. Junts voted against that bill and separately registered its own legislation. PSC leader and Catalan regional president Salvador Illa has repeatedly said that face veils are not common in Catalonia and that no social problem exists, per todoalicante.es.
Across Europe, other governments have been moving the same way. Brussels Signal reports that France, Belgium, Denmark and Austria already outlaw face veils in public. Portugal joined them in August, when the country's president signed a bill from the right-wing Chega party. The day before the Lleida vote, Italy's government banned the burqa and niqab in schools by decree.
The Lleida vote arrives nine months before Spain's local elections in May, a detail noted by todoalicante.es.
Published September 26, 2026 · Frisian News