An investigation has been opened following the discovery of neo-Nazi graffiti in La Flèche, a town in the Sarthe region that was won by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in March’s municipal elections, the Le Mans prosecutor’s office confirmed on Tuesday, August 4.
Tags depicting black-painted swastikas and Celtic crosses were found at four locations in the sub-prefecture, notably in front of the town hall and near the public D’Estournelle de Constant high school. A source close to the case confirmed the details, which were initially reported by the local newspaper Le Maine Libre.
Symbolic Sites Targeted in Overnight Attack
A supplementary complaint was to be filed on Tuesday afternoon following the discovery of several new tags, bringing the total to around a dozen. “Symbolic places were targeted,” Mayor Romain Lemoigne (RN) told AFP, citing inscriptions found near a war memorial. “Everything has been cleaned up,” he added, noting that the town had already suffered similar degradation in April 2025, before his election.
The Le Mans public prosecutor’s office confirmed the opening of a judicial inquiry after the discovery on Monday of “several inscriptions such as swastikas and Celtic crosses in the town center.” Deputy prosecutor Marie-Agnès Joly specified that investigations are being carried out as a flagrance inquiry for “degradation or deterioration of another’s property committed in connection with race, ethnicity, nation, or religion.”
“What is even more abject is that symbolic places were targeted,” Mayor Lemoigne stated. “We do not tolerate any totalitarian ideology. We are viscerally against it,” the RN official insisted.
A Pattern of Antisemitic Acts
This is not the first time such acts have occurred in La Flèche. Local outlet Les Nouvelles de Sablé reported that antisemitic tags were discovered in the city center in April 2025. During the 2026 municipal election campaign, swastikas were also tagged on posters of the former Socialist mayor, Nadine Grelet-Certenais, according to Le Maine Libre.
La Flèche, the second-largest town in the Sarthe region and governed by the Socialist Party since 1989, became the first RN municipality in the Pays de la Loire region following the March 2026 elections. The investigation has been entrusted to the La Flèche gendarmerie brigade.
“I condemn with the utmost firmness these odious acts, which constitute a serious attack on the values of the Republic, on human dignity, and on the serenity of La Flèche,” the mayor wrote on social media on Monday, denouncing the “neo-Nazi, fascist, and antisemitic character” of the tags.
