Mayors and deputies opposed to the obligation of the French and European flags on the town halls


The Macronist deputies suffered a setback on Wednesday in the National Assembly, with the rejection in committee of a bill aimed at making it compulsory to display the flags of town halls with the French and European flags, deemed unnecessary by the opposition. The text, which will still be examined on May 9 in the hemicycle, came up against the vote of amendments to delete its single article, tabled by La France Insoumise (LFI) and the National Rally (RN).

“A concern far removed from the reality on the ground”

The text with the “eminently symbolic scope” aims to “consolidate a republican use” and to “consecrate a practice which is widespread”, defended before the Law Commission its rapporteur, the Renaissance deputy Mathieu Lefèvre. Regarding the European flag, he pleaded for the importance of “remembering the values ​​to which we are attached”, in the context of Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

LFI deputy Antoine Léaument castigated in return an attempt to divert the pension crisis. “As you no longer know what text to pass to turn the page, you bury us under texts without consistency and without interest”, he launched, judging the measure “contrary to the principle of the free administration of the communes”.

On the side of the RN, Thomas Ménagé mocked a “new useless obligation”, falling under “display” and “normative inflation”. “While the French are suffering, the display of the European flag on our town halls seems to be a concern far removed from the reality on the ground”. “There may be more urgent than that!”, Also launched the deputy LR Philippe Gosselin, believing that if there were to be an obligation, it could only be valid “for the French flag”.

MP Modem Élodie Jacquier-Laforge also wondered about a text which “does not respond to the concerns of our compatriots”, even if elected officials from her group and from Horizons, allies of Renaissance in the National Assembly, have co-signed the bill.

Mayors don’t seem supportive either

The main interested parties, the mayors of the municipalities, do not seem to be in favor of this bill either. For Ludovic Pajot, National Rally mayor of Bruay-la-Buissière in Pas-de-Calais, it is a question of national sovereignty. “There is the French flag. We will not display a European flag on our town hall”, he assures the microphone of Europe 1. “The Constitution recognizes only one flag: the French flag. The French rejected the European Constitution in 2005. And then we are very attached to the freedom of local elected officials as well.”

One year before the European elections, this bill is not a coincidence, according to him. An analysis shared by Pascal Thévenot, Les Républicains mayor of Vélizy-Villacoublay, in the Yvelines. “We are going to point the finger at the few mayors who, politically, have not put it on. It is completely in the spirit of Macron. It is ‘the extreme right or me’, and I think that he wants to start a controversy on the Europeans in relation to that, because otherwise I think there is no subject.”

However, he did not wait for the Renaissance deputies to unfurl the starred blue flag on the pediment of his town hall. “It seems obvious to me to have it. It’s all national, European and local history that is on the pediment of the town hall”, he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

An obligation that could cost a hundred euros to town halls. A real budget for some small towns in France.



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