Religious apparel - wearing full-face veils in public has been proposed for prohibition by Austria's coalition government on Monday. The proposal also includes the access restriction of eastern European workers' to the country's labor market.
The proposals are part of a wider government program aimed to counter the rise of the far-right, anti-Islam Freedom Party, AlJazeera reported. According to Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, the full face veil will be banned in public spaces, and said the new policies set to be implemented over the next 18 months.
Kern also stated that he wanted to avoid giving over 600 thousand Muslims living in Austria the "feeling that they are not part of the society".
Obliging migrants granted the right to stay to sign an "integration contract" and a "statement of values", the 35-page proposals also includes beefing up surveillance and security measures.
The text reads that those who are not prepared to accept Enlightenment values will have to leave our country and society. The plans also promises that lower taxes and non-wage labor costs will be implemented by the government and some 70,000 new jobs will be created.
Measures set out for the plans must be hammered out in detail and receive majority approval in the parliament before being enforce.
The move comes eight months after Kern, 51, replaced Werner Faymann at the head of an unhappy grand coalition between his Social Democrats and the centre-right People's Party.
Both are facing a strong challenge from the Freedom Party, which like similar groups across Europe has stoked concerns about immigration, security and the European Union to top opinion polls, as reported by BBC.
In January, the Freedom Party candidate came close to become the next President during the country's presidential election.
Kern of the Social Democratic Party hopes the package will provide fresh impetus for an eight-month-old coalition widely seen as ineffective- as a parliamentary election is due next year.
Conservative Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner told reporters during the joint news conference that they have agreed to work faster and more clearly.
