During the last days, the prefectures of Sena-Saint-Denis, Alpes-Maritimes and Hauts-de-Seine successively requested the municipalities of Saint-Denis, Niza and Gennevilliers the withdrawal of the Israeli and Palestinian flags installed in the request of the municipalities.
The prefect of Hauts-de-Seine, Alexandre Brugère, estimated that raising this flag constituted “a political symbol” and “an attack on the principle of neutrality of the public service.”
Jurisprudence dated 2005
This principle, which finds jurisprudence for the first time through the State Council in 2005 with the installation of the Martínica flag instead of that of France, is “with constitutional value” and is “the corollary of the principle of equality”, supports Ethienne Colson, lawyer in public law, attached by BFMTV.com.
“A City Council, such as the department or region, must be the temple of neutrality,” continues the lawyer. “A user must enter it from any prejudice.” In this regard, Ethienne Colson refers to Francis Donnat, government commissioner during the decision issued by the State Council in 2005.
The latter declared that each user “has the right to wait for the authorities responsible for a public service that do not impose, on the public road, see a sign that symbolizes a particular attachment to a current of thought, a political party or religious convictions.”
“The position of religious or political signs or emblems on the facade or in the pediment of a public building could be correctly considered as an act of pressure, propaganda or proselytism, even as a form of official recognition opposite to the neutrality of public services,” he continued.
Constant legal vague
However, a legal vagueness still surrounds the flags of flags or banners in municipal sets. “No legal status is attached” to the paidity of the municipalities of the municipalities, or even for the French and European flags, recalls Ethienne Colason, despite a use that has greatly democratized.
In 2023, a bill has not been adopted to make these two flags for the municipalities of more than 1,500 inhabitants, for the moment.
In addition to the official ceremonies, the installation of these flags is, therefore, “Republican use”, underlines a circular of the prefect of the Alps-Maritimes aimed at the mayors of the department this Tuesday, June 17.
CHAR EXAMINATION
Despite the judgment of July 27, 2005, each installation of “foreign entities” flags is examined in the case of a case of the competent administrative court, recalls Laurent Hottiaux.
Regarding the Israeli flag, in Niza, the Court had made only one decision, Rejecting at the end of May 2024 “due to lack of emergency” A summary appeal presented by three citizens of the Niza anonyms. To what Etienne Colson blows: “We frequently forget that the municipalities were chosen to take care of municipal issues and nothing more.”
The Administrative Court of Lyon had considered it illegal the installation of the Palestinian flag in the pediment of the Vaulx-En-Velin City Council in 2011, judging that it was a “direct expression of a political position in the field of France’s foreign policy.”
Political claim or “symbol of solidarity”
However, the Pavilion of the Tibetan Banderas in 2008 or Ukrainians in several municipalities of the country had not suffered the same legislative rigor.
Denunciating “two pesos two measures”, the mayor of Gennevilliers, Patrice Leclerc, was also surprised, in a letter addressed to the prefect of Hauts-de-Seine and was made public, that the application of the Prefecture was addressed “only in concretion of the paving of the Palestinian flag, and not when the city’s forecourum was populated in the color of Ukraine.
“Putting a Ukrainian flag on the facade of a public building is not a political demand; it is a symbol of solidarity towards a nation victim of an assault,” on the other hand, he decided that the Administrative Court of Versailles after an appeal presented by a resident.
The Paris Administrative Court had also considered the paving of LGBT flags legal in the pediment of the City of Paris and the National Assembly in the framework of the 2018 Pride March, considering in particular that this law was aimed at expressing tolerance values and fighting discrimination.
What are the mayors?
Mathieu Hanotin, mayor of Saint-Denis, who had raised the Palestinian flag in the pediment of his town hall during the arrival of the Palestine Ambassador Hala Abou-Hahassira this Friday, June 13, withdrew it on Monday.
After the requests made by the prefectures, Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice, said he had “made commitments to the Niçois” for the Pavan of the Israeli flags and indicated that he wanted to leave him to the last Israeli hostage.
In the event that a councilor refuses to withdraw a flag despite a request from the competent prefecture, it is exposed to a prefectural derivation: the prefect seized the Administrative Court on summary procedures, which deciphers in 48 hours, decipher Ethienne Colson. “Then it will be enough to demonstrate that there is an attack on the neutrality of the public service to obtain its retirement,” which later becomes an obligation to the councilor in question.
Source: BFM TV
