Christophe Barthès, the RN mayor of Carcassonne, rejected the request for a loan of municipal premises to allow the Algerian community to vote in the legislative elections. He explains it.
Algerian nationals from Carcassonne will not be able to vote in a municipal hall for their country’s legislative elections. Mayor RN Christophe Barthès refused to make a room available to the Algerian consulate on July 2.
Christophe Barthès motivates his decision on the Facebook page of the city of Carcassonne by “the strong diplomatic tensions between Algeria and France”, but also by the fate reserved for the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal and the journalist Christophe Gleizes, still detained in Algeria.
“It does not seem coherent to me that the city of Carcassonne mobilizes its material, human and logistical resources in order to contribute to the organization of an election in a state whose authorities today maintain particularly degraded relations with France,” continues Christophe Gleizes.
“This decision does not in any way target Algerian nationals”
“An assumed political choice”, said Mayor RN, specifying that “this decision does not in any way target the inhabitants of Carcassonne or the Algerian nationals residing on our territory”.
A French municipality has no obligation to make municipal premises available to a foreign state for the organization of its legislative elections. The municipality lends or rents its municipal rooms to whomever it wishes.
Neither the Aude prefecture nor the Algerian consulate in Montpellieer reacted. Algerian nationals will be able to vote in premises belonging to Carcassonne Agglo, the Max Savy social center at 1 rue du Moulin de la Seigne, between June 27 and July 2.
Since his election in March 2026, several political decisions by Christophe Barthès have created controversy: removal of the European flag from the facade of the town hall, anti-begging decree, choice to expel several unions from municipal premises that some had occupied for dozens years. Christophe Barthès assumes these decisions.
