It is a text that has divided both the majority and the Nupes. After a tense examination, the bill tabled by Renaissance aimed at making the French and European flags obligatory on the pediment of town halls with more than 1,500 inhabitants was voted by 130 votes against 109 at first reading in the National Assembly. and must now be considered by the Senate.
Amendments have made the initial text more flexible. They allow flags to be hoisted near town halls or on their roofs and above all exempt municipalities with fewer than 1,500 inhabitants from the obligation to display flags, for financial reasons.
“The exemption concerns 70% of the municipalities of France”, denounced the deputy Les Républicains Philippe Gosselin. According to him, “it doesn’t make sense” in a “one and indivisible Republic”. “Either (the European flag) is important, it’s a symbol and we display it everywhere” or not, criticized the ecologist Jérémie Iordanoff, announcing an abstention on the whole text.
An LFI deputy “invites the mayors to take down the portraits of Emmanuel Macron”
The deputies also voted for an amendment carried by the Renaissance deputy for Maine-et-Loire Denis Masséglia to guarantee in all town halls this time the presence of the official portrait of the President of the Republic, a use that is also widespread.
“Town halls are the home of the French. The portrait of their President of the Republic, whoever he is, must therefore be displayed, out of respect for the democratic vote”, considers Denis Masséglia.
This measure was strongly criticized by the deputies of La France insoumise. “The ‘flags’ law has become a ‘cult of the leader’ law. The macronists have voted for the obligation to put Macron’s portrait in all town halls”, regretted on Twitter the Insoumis deputy from Essonne Antoine Léaument. In order to “protest against this law and the pension reform”, Antoine Léaument “invited the mayors of France to take down the portraits of Emmanuel Macron”. MP LFI Raquel Garrido denounced on Twitter a “coup de force” of the majority.
A bill aimed at making it compulsory to display the portrait of the President of the Republic in town halls had already been tabled on February 9, 2021 by Philippe Gosselin. An amendment by the deputy LR of the Channel was voted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday: the display of the declaration of the Rights of Man and of the citizen inside the town halls. In addition, an amendment by deputy Antoine Léaument aimed at affixing the motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity on their facades was voted by the deputies.
A “diversion attempt” according to the left
The bill aimed at making the French and European flags obligatory on the pediment of town halls had been voluntarily placed on the agenda on Tuesday, the day of the anniversary of Robert Schuman’s declaration of May 9, 1950, considered as a founding text of the European construction, but the tense debates spilled over into Wednesday evening.
One year before the European elections, Renaissance rapporteur Mathieu Lefèvre assumes the divisive nature of his proposal with “symbolic significance”. “Those who find it difficult to hide their discomfort in front of the starry flag have just as much difficulty hiding their dreams of disguised Frexit, red for some and brown for others”, he attacked, targeting rebellious deputies and RN. The Secretary of State for Europe, Laurence Boone, went further by pointing to the “two extremes of this hemicycle”.
Rebellious and communists mocked “the attempt at diversion” of the presidential camp to try to turn the page on pension reform, by a measure “without any practical utility”. At the RN, MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy launched a frontal attack against the starred flag, which according to him bears “no symbol”. “There are only three colors to which the French bow”, he judged, “blue, white and red”.