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France warns mayors not to fly Palestinian flags amid state recognition announcement

Saturday, 20 September 2025 9:58 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 20 September 2025 9:58 AM ]

Riot forces surround people at a demonstration in support of the Palestinian people on Republic Square in Paris, France. (Photo by EPA)

France’s Interior Ministry has instructed prefects across the country to block the display of Palestinian flags on municipal buildings and other public structures next week, coinciding with Paris’s official recognition of the Palestinian state.

In a telegram sent on Thursday, the ministry asserted the principle of public service neutrality “prohibits such flag displays,” alleging that they would amount to “taking sides in an international conflict,” which falls under the exclusive authority of the state.

The ministry also cited concerns over “importing an ongoing international conflict into the national territory.”

It warned of “serious disturbances to public order identified locally.”

Prefects were also ordered to intervene against such displays and, in cases of refusal by mayors, to take the matter before administrative courts.

The decision comes after Socialist leader Olivier Faure urged municipalities to hoist the Palestinian flag on September 22, when President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to co-chair a UN conference on the formal recognition of the Palestinian state with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Faure said on Friday that prefects did not have the power to ban such displays.

“The courts will decide if necessary,” he said on X.

“An outgoing minister should manage day-to-day affairs, not seek to symbolically oppose the decision taken by the president to recognize a Palestinian state,” the Socialist leader added, referring to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

Luxembourg announces it will recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly

Luxembourg is joining the growing list of Western countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

France is expecting the announcement of the new cabinet composition following Macron’s designation of his close associate, Sebastien Lecornu, as the new prime minister last week to address an escalating political crisis.

A number of French mayors have already declared their intention to raise the Palestinian flag on their municipal buildings next week.

Amid the French Interior Ministry’s clampdown on public display of Palestinian flags and court decisions, several French town halls have had to remove the flags.

In June, a court ordered the mayor of the eastern city of Besancon to remove the Palestinian flag, saying she had “violated the principle of neutrality of public services” by displaying the flag.

The mayor, Anne Vignot, said at the time she was “shocked” by the ruling.

“Is denouncing a massacre and supporting a starving people under bombardment no longer a cause that unites us under the banner of the Republic?” she said in a statement.

As of April this year, some 147 countries, representing 75 percent of UN members, had already recognized Palestinian statehood.

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