VIDEO The head of French diplomacy accuses the newly elected mayors who took down the EU flag of “betrayal”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot condemned the move by several mayors after victories in French municipal elections this month by the eurosceptic and anti-immigration National Rally (RN), who took down the EU flag from the institutions they run.

Barrot declared, on Tuesday, that the gesture made by them “is a betrayal of what we are”.

“The European Union is something that France wanted. We are – to ensure peace, to preserve our independence in the face of increasing pressure from empires and to assert our own vision of the world,” the head of French diplomacy said on Tuesday in a post on the X platform, as quoted by Politico.

“There is no dissolution of national identity into European identity, just as our local identities do not fade behind our national identity,” the official added.

Several RN mayors took down the EU flag

In Carcassonne in southern France on Sunday, RN Mayor Christophe Barthès filmed himself removing the EU flag from the balcony of the town hall and posted the images on his X platform account.

“Out with the European flags from the town hall! Let the French flags come,” the mayor wrote.

Hors les drapeaux européens à la mairie!

Place aux drapeaux français 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/QqoymNwUCm

— Christophe Barthes (@BarthesChristop) March 29, 2026

Also in the south of France, the newly elected mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Bryan Masson, published a photo of his office, and the image shows multiple French flags, but no EU flag.

🇫🇷 Happy week to all! #CagnesSurMer pic.twitter.com/YGP71XEjyX

— Bryan Masson (@MassonBryan) March 30, 2026

Carla Muti, the mayor of Canohès, also posted a video in which she takes down the EU flag.

Bye bye 👋🇪🇺#rassemblementnational #Canohes pic.twitter.com/yPIfVDVw80

— Carla Muti (@muti_carla) March 30, 2026

A similar gesture was made by Anthony Garénaux-Glinkowski, the far-right mayor of Harnes, in northern France, who also took down the flag of Ukraine, which some town halls had displayed as a sign of solidarity in the context of the war launched by Russia in February 2022.

In France, there is no law requiring the display of the European symbol on the facades of town halls, with the exception of May 9, Europe Day, RN officials said to justify the gesture, according to Le Monde.