Several mayors from the far-right National Rally party elected in the last municipal elections in France have removed European flags from the facades of their town halls, a gesture supported by party executives and accused of “populism” by the government.
“European flags out at the town hall! Make way for the French flags,” wrote the mayor of Carcassonne Christophe Barthès on Sunday on X, shortly after his installation, accompanying his message with a video where we see him taking down the European flag himself, leaving the tricolor and Occitan flags.
The new elected official of Cagnes-sur-Mer published a photo on Monday of the facade of the town hall devoid of the European flag. The one from Harnes, in the North, Anthony Garénaux-Glinkowski, took the lead upon his installation on March 24 by removing European and Ukrainian flags.
“Will they also refuse the European funds that our farmers, our companies receive for reindustrialization, our territories? Are they going to return their compensation from the European Parliament?,” Minister for Europe Benjamin Haddad asked AFP. “It’s populism which shows that the RN has not changed,” he lambasted.
No legal text requires the presence of the European symbol on the facades of town halls in France with the exception of May 9, Europe Day. The Constitution only recognizes the tricolor flag.
A bill aimed at making it compulsory to display the French and European flags on the pediments of town halls of municipalities with more than 1,500 inhabitants was adopted by the National Assembly in 2023. Transmitted to the Senate, it has not yet been examined by the upper house of Parliament.
In January, several town halls, mostly rural communities, also took down the European flag in support of farmers denouncing the free trade treaty between the EU and Mercosur countries.
