The embly adopts the obligation of the European flag in front of town halls

Quite a symbol. The day after the anniversary of Robert Schuman’s declaration of May 9, 1950, considered a founding text of European construction, the National embly adopted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday a text making the French and European flags compulsory at the pediment of town halls. If the use was already widespread, nothing until now obliged the town halls to adorn their facades with republican colors and European.

After a tense examination, the bill was supported by 130 votes against 109 at first reading. 125 deputies from the majority voted in favor of the text (5 abstained, none voted against) but also the five socialist deputies present. The text must now be examined by the Senate.

Relaxations and many amendments

Amendments have relaxed the initial text, allowing flags to be hoisted near town halls or on their roofs. Above all, an exemption has been provided for municipalities with less than 1,500 inhabitants, for financial reasons.

“The exemption concerns 70% of the municipalities of France”, denounced the deputy LR Philippe Gosselin, “it does not make sense” in a “One and indivisible Republic”. “Either (the European flag) is important, it is a symbol and it is displayed everywhere” or not, also criticized the ecologist Jérémie Iordanoff, announcing an abstention on the whole text.

The deputies also voted for an amendment to guarantee, in all the town halls this time, the presence of the official portrait of the President of the Republic , which is also widely used. Then two others to affix the motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” on their facades (Leaument amendment, LFI) or display the declaration of Human rights and of the citizen within (Gosselin, LR).

A wholesale rejection of the RN and LFI

The bill, brought by the macronist group Renaissance, had been voluntarily placed on the agenda on Tuesday, but the tense debates spilled over into Wednesday evening. One year before the European elections, the Renaissance rapporteur Mathieu Lefèvre umes the divisive nature of his proposal with “symbolic significance”.

“Those who find it difficult to hide their uneasiness in front of the star-spangled flag find it just as difficult to hide their dreams of Frexit in disguise red for some and brown for others, ”he attacked, targeting rebellious deputies and RN. The Secretary of State for Europe, Laurence Boone added 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”.

With AFP