Overview

• Olivier Faure urged mayors to fly the Palestinian flag on 22 September, prompting the Interior Ministry to issue a telegram instructing prefects to oppose such displays.
• Hugues Moutouh, the ministry’s secretary general, wrote that flying the flag would constitute taking sides in an international conflict and an interference contrary to the law.
• Prefects are told to ask mayors to remove any such pavoisement and, if they refuse, to refer the decisions to administrative courts for urgent review.
• Only a few municipalities have said they will proceed, including Nantes under Johanna Rolland and Saint-Denis led by Mathieu Hanotin, while others like Saint-Ouen and Rouen propose displaying both Palestinian and Israeli flags as a gesture of balance.
• The move has intensified political tensions, drawing sharp criticism from right‑wing figures in Nantes over public‑service neutrality and fueling an internal row in the Socialist Party after Jérôme Guedj’s rebuke of Faure’s messaging, which coincides with Rosh Hashanah.