“French mayors revolt against the lowering of the flag out of respect for Queen Elizabeth II”, headlines the British daily The Daily Telegraph, adding in subtitle: “Lowering the French flag for a monarch is an affront, according to a group of city officials refusing to carry out orders from President Macron.”
According to the conservative daily, these left-wing mayors claim “that Emmanuel Macron and the media show an unhealthy fondness for the British monarchy in the land of the French Revolution”.
President “paid an emotional tribute to Britain and ‘queen of hearts’, recalls the Daily Telegraph, and its Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne asked [par circulaire] that town halls and other public buildings lower the French flag halfway next Monday,” funeral day.
What are the risks for refractories?
The Times, another conservative newspaper to take an interest in the question, recalls that the mayors of Bourges, Yann Galut (ex-PS), and of Faches-Thumesnil (on the Belgian border), Patrick Proisy (LFI), were the first to announce that they would not apply this instruction. They were “applauded by other mayors and supported by left-wing personalities on social networks”.
Philippe Laurent (UDI), mayor of Sceaux and vice-president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), said recalcitrant mayors could break the law and risk suspension because they are under the authority of prefects. He affirmed that the instruction would be followed, in the name of Franco-British friendship, writes The Times.
However, The Daily Telegraph note that he “there are no written rules forcing mayors to lower the flags, except in the event of the death of a French president”.