Several recently elected far-right mayors have taken down European Union flags from the facades of their town halls, in a move the French government denounced as ‘populism’.
Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, eurosceptic Rassemblement National (RN) party notched wins in small and mid-sized towns, in the recent local elections, even though it failed to take any major urban centres.
Far-right mayors in several towns wasted no time in taking down the EU flags.
“Out with the European flags at the town hall! Make way for the French flags,” Christophe Barthes, the mayor of the southern town of Carcassonne, said on X on Sunday.
He posted footage showing him personally taking down the European flag and leaving only the French tricolour and the regional flag of Occitanie.
Bryan Masson, the new mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, a seaside resort near the southern city of Nice, and Anthony Garenaux-Glinkowski, the far-right mayor of the northern town of Harnes, followed suit.
Garenaux-Glinkowski also took down the Ukrainian flag that French city halls have been flying in a gesture of solidarity after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
France’s Europe minister Benjamin Haddad denounced the move as “populism.”
“Will they also refuse the European funds received by our farmers, our businesses for re-industrialisation, and our regions? Will they hand back their European Parliament allowances?” Haddad said in a statement to AFP.
“This is populism that shows the RN hasn’t changed,” he added.
No law requires the European symbol to be displayed on town hall facades, except on May 9th, Europe Day.
Most town halls display both the French flag and the EU flag, and often add an extra flag for special events, such as LGBTQ pride month, while some town halls also fly the Ukrainian flag in order to show solidarity.
However the EU flag remains a choice for local mayors – it is, however, compulsory to fly both the French flag and the EU flag on school buildings.
When French government ministers give speeches, it is common for them to have both the French and EU flags in the background.
In 2023 the French Assemblée nationale voted n favour of making the EU flag compulsory for town halls, but the bill was later defeated in the Senate.
In 2022, French authorities took down a temporary installation of the EU flag from the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris, after right-wing opponents of President Emmanuel Macron accused him of “erasing” French identity.
