Newly elected RN mayors remove European flags from their town halls

Several National Rally mayors elected in the last municipal elections removed European flags from the facades of their town halls, a gesture supported by party executives. “Populism, which shows that the RN has not changed”reacted on Monday March 30, the Minister responsible for Europe, Benjamin Haddad. “Will they also refuse the European funds that our farmers, our companies receive for reindustrialization, our territories? Will they return their compensation from the European Parliament?”he asked AFP.

“Out with the European flags at the town hall! Make way for the French flags”wrote the mayor of Carcassonne Christophe Barthès on Sunday March 29 on X, accompanying his message with a video where we see him taking down the European flag himself. Bryan Masson, new councilor of Cagnes-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes), published on Monday a photo of the facade of the town hall, also devoid of a European flag, while the RN mayor of Harnes (Pas-de-Calais) Anthony Garénaux-Glinkowski had taken the initiative, upon its installation on March 24, to remove the European and Ukrainian flags.

No legal text requires the presence of the European symbol on the facades of town halls with the exception of May 9, Europe Day. The Constitution only recognizes the tricolor flag. RN executives put forward another argument to justify the withdrawals: “the French refused the European flag by referendum in 2005, it is therefore illegitimate in France”MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy wrote on X.

A bill aimed at making it compulsory to display French and European flags on the pediments of town halls in 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 the 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.