Belgian Town Cuts Ties with Twin French City after Far-Right Win

The mayor of a Belgian industrial town cut off ties with a sister city in southern France on Monday after the far right won its city hall in weekend local elections.

The far-right National Front will take control of about a dozen French towns after elections Sunday, including Beaucaire, a sun-soaked bullfighting town where 30-year-old Julien Sanchez, a party official, is to become the next mayor.

"Politically, we cannot continue to work with people who develop such views, such ideologies," Hughes Bayet, the Socialist mayor of Farciennes, which is twinned with Beaucaire, told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

The twinning between the two towns goes back to World War II when Farciennes residents fled the Nazi invasion of Belgium for southern France, but Bayet said the ties were now suspended.

France's ruling Socialists suffered a humiliating defeat Sunday that saw the far right win historic gains.