PARIS: Several recently elected far-right mayors have taken down European Union flags from the facades of their town halls, in a move the French government denounced as `populism`.

Marine Le Pen`s anti-immigration, eurosceptic National Rally (RN) party is on the rise and hopes to win the country`s top job in next year`s presidential election. During this month`s polls to elect mayors, the far-right party notched wins in small and mid-sized towns, even though it failed to take any major urban centres. Far-right mayors in several towns wasted no time in taking down the EU flags.

`Out with the European flags at the town hall! Make way for the French flags,` Christophe Barthes, the mayor of the southern town of Carcassonne, said on X on Sunday.

He posted footage showing him personally taking down the European flag and leaving only the French tricolour and the regional flag of Occitania. Bryan Masson, the new mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, a seaside resort near the southern city of Nice, and Anthony Garenaux-Glinkowski, the far-right mayor of the northern town of Harnes, followed suit.

Garenaux-Glinkowski also took down the Ukrainian flag that French city halls have been flying in a gesture of solidarity after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

France`s Europe minister Benjamin Haddad denounced the move as `populism.` `Will they also refuse the European funds received by our farmers, our businesses for re-industrialisation, and our regions? Will they hand back their European Parliament allowances?` Haddad said in a statement.

`This is populism that shows the RN hasn`t changed, he added. No law requires the European symbol to be displayed on town hall facades, except on May 9, Europe Day. RN officials have justified the removal of the EU flag.-AFP