In the French town of Arcis-sur-Aube, an unusual duel is looming before the second round of municipal elections, which has also caught the attention of social networks. The incumbent mayor Charles Hittler and his challenger Antoine Renault-Zielenski will compete for voters’ votes. It is a combination of names that evokes historical and contemporary associations. It was reported by the Libération newspaper, writes TASR.
The inhabitants of the town with approximately 2,800 inhabitants, which is located in the Aube department and in the Champagne-Ardenne region, will decide in Sunday’s elections not only about the new management of the town hall, but also about the outcome of an unexpectedly watched fight. Social networks in France were flooded with “humorous” posts about the fight between German dictator Adolf Hitler and Ukrainian “superhero” Volodymyr Zelensky. Seventy-year-old Hitler has been running the town hall in Arcis-sur-Aube for years.
He takes the attention his name brings in stride. As he admitted to the media, pranks accompany him all his life: from drawn characteristic mustaches on posters to anonymous phone calls. “Once you are known, the name ceases to be important. People perceive the person behind the name. To my acquaintances, I have always been just ‘Monsieur Charles,'” explained Hittler. Hitler’s family comes from northern Alsace near the German border.
His father was a shepherd and was taken to Germany as part of a forced labor program during World War II. He got married in 1949, and even though many persuaded him to change his surname, the young couple did not change their surname due to the administrative burden and high financial costs. Only a few members of the “clan” remained in France anyway.
Daughters were born to Hitler’s cousins in Alsace, so the surname naturally disappears there. One of his sons, in an effort to avoid causing embarrassment – prefers to pronounce his name “Hit-laj”. Hitler’s grandchildren have surnames after their mothers. In the first round of municipal elections on Sunday, March 15, Hitler received the most votes among all candidates – 37.8 percent. He focused his campaign on center-right voters.
His opponent, 28-year-old Renault-Zielenski, reached the second round with 30 percent of the vote. He is running for the far-right movement Patrioti (Patriotes – LP), which was founded by the former vice-chairman of the far-right National Front, Florian Philippot. He uses the double surname Renault-Zielenski as a tribute to his parents – Renault is from his father, Zielenski is from his mother of Polish origin.
He himself admits that since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, he cannot avoid comments about his name. However, he emphasizes that this is only a linguistic similarity without any other context. In addition to the candidates with unusual names, the independent candidate Annie Soucatová advanced to the second round of the elections in Arcis-sur-Aube, which won over 32 percent of the vote in the first round and can still “shuffle the cards.” In municipal elections in France, a second round of voting is always held when no candidate in the first round receives an absolute majority of votes – more than 50 percent of the vote.
All candidates who won at least ten percent of the votes advance to the second round. The British station BBC pointed out that Hitler was a relatively rare surname in Germany, it was made infamous only by the infamous Adolf Hitler. After the Second World War, this name almost disappeared.
