Gwenn-ha-du: When the court paints in black and white

The verdict was announced on 16 October. The reason for the ruling is that there is no formal decision by the city council to fly the Breton flag – the Gwenn-ha-Du – at the town hall. Four years ago, the city council decided, without such a formal decision, to fly the Gwenn-ha-du in the Breton wind alongside the French, European and Naoned/Nantes flags. A citizen had objected to this.

As is well known, France does not recognise the existence of national minorities on its territory. In Brittany, there has long been discontent about the fact that Breton culture and Breton traditions are not only not being promoted, but are being hindered in their development. It is in this light that the association Breizh Unvan (United Brittany) interprets the court's decision.

Naoned/Nantes is the historical capital of Brittany. However, after the Second World War, the department of Loire-Atlantique with Naoned/Nantes was separated from Brittany and added to the Pays de la Loire region, according to the old motto 'divide and rule', i.e. to suppress the rebellious Bretons and their demands. Since then, the Bretons – united from left to right on this issue – have been striving for reunification. The association Breizh Unvan brings together all the associations calling for this. Breizh Unvan criticizes the fact that double standards are applied to the Bretons. The Breton flag has to be taken down on an administrative technicality, but the fact that the former president of the Loire-Atlantique council was able to refuse to vote on a petition signed by 105,000 citizens in 2018 without fear of legal consequences is what Breizh Unvan is outraged about. The association had collected the signatures to launch a referendum on the reunification of historic Brittany.

This demand has been raised relentlessly for 50 years, and protests against the division have been held time and again. They were particularly fierce in 2014 when the government of then-President François Hollande carried out a territorial reform that the Bretons feared would have even more far-reaching negative consequences. The fear was that Brittany would be absorbed into a larger region, the Grand Ouest. This did not happen, partly because of fierce public opposition. Alsace, on the other hand, experienced exactly what was planned for Brittany. In 2014 it was absorbed into a new macro-region, the Grand Est, and thus ceased to exist. In Brittany, the demand for reunification is commemorated every year on 12 October. This year, 300 people demonstrated in Naoned/Nantes for this cause.

France is certainly not the only EU member state to take legal action against symbols of national minorities in public spaces. This is also the case in Romania, where not only Hungarian inscriptions on town halls (although they are always part of a bilingual inscription in Hungarian and Romanian) are systematically attacked, as criticised by the Miko Imre Association for the Protection of Minority Rights. The association was founded by the umbrella organisation of the Hungarian minority in Romania. Romanian courts regularly rule that such inscriptions must be removed.

The flag of Szeklerland is also the target of legal attacks. Some time ago, the city council of Csíkszereda/Szeklerburg/Miercurea Ciuc had to remove the Szekler flag from the town hall, as well as the inscription 'Városháza' (Hungarian for town hall), although the Romanian inscription 'Primărie' was also written next to the Hungarian one. 79 per cent of Csíkszereda's inhabitants are Szeklers, members of a Hungarian tribe that settled in three districts of northeastern Transylvania (Erdély in Hungarian), where they make up the majority of the population. What also infuriates the Hungarians in Transylvania is that in Bukovina, for example, it is perfectly acceptable to fly the flag of the historical region. Moreover, it is even used for tourist marketing, especially as Bukovina is known for its colourful costumes and traditions. The same is true of Szeklerland. But Romania prefers to paint everything in black and white.

Note: This article gives the views of the author and does not represent the position of the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages (MIDAS) or Eurac Research.