Following French President Emmanuel Macron ’s recognition of Palestinian statehood earlier this week, dozens of town halls across France raised Palestinian flags in celebration, defying instructions from Macron’s interior ministry.

By Wednesday, some had taken the flag down after regional authorities initiated legal proceedings—an episode that some mayors said undermined the message of solidarity Macron sought to convey with his largely symbolic recognition.

“For me, it’s a complete misunderstanding,” Raphael Adam, mayor of Nanterre outside Paris, told Reuters. “You can’t have a government asking its representatives to oppose raising a flag at the same time it’s recognising the state.”

The city raised the flag in a ceremony on Monday, but a day later, the Nanterre administrative cou

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