Overview
- France’s Interior Ministry said 21 town halls were flying the Palestinian flag on Monday despite guidance to remove such displays.
- Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau instructed prefects to challenge the flags in administrative courts, with officials lacking authority to order police removals.
- Socialist leader Olivier Faure urged mayors to participate and asked President Emmanuel Macron to rescind the directive, appearing at a flag-raising in Seine-Saint-Denis.
- Mayors including Johanna Rolland in Nantes, Mathieu Hanotin in Saint-Denis and Jacqueline Belhomme in Malakoff confirmed flag displays, with some refusing takedown requests.
- Paris projected Israeli and Palestinian flags with a dove on the Eiffel Tower, as Macron readied France’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly.