Hittler faces Zielinski as French town's election contest goes viral

A small French town has won instant internet fame because its mayor – running for re-election in Sunday's municipal elections – goes by the name of Hittler.

Not just that. One of his two opponents is called Zielinski.

"It has gone completely crazy," lamented Charles Hittler, mayor of Arcis-sur-Aube (population 2,785), when contacted by the BBC.

"All my life I've had the occasional joke made about my name. Sometimes people drew moustaches on my election posters. It was never a big deal.

"But now it's out of control. I've seen online articles saying '37% of the people of Arcis are Hitlerites!'. My wife is in tears."

French social media has been inundated with "humorous" posts about the battle between the late German dictator Adolf Hitler and Ukraine's modern-day hero Volodymyr Zelensky.

Hittler says the attention is getting too much.

"If people were talking about the town and our policies, that would be one thing. But all they're interested in is our names," he said.

So how did this retired French laboratory head come to be called Hittler? And why hasn't he changed his name?

"My family comes from northern Alsace [along the German border], and my father was a shepherd. In the war he was taken to Germany in their forced labour programme," Hittler said.

"After he came back he met my mother. Everyone said, 'You've got to change your name.' This was 1949. The war was a recent memory But it was a huge administrative headache and it would have cost a lot of money, so they didn't."

There are only a few of his tribe left in France, he says. His Hittler cousins in Alsace all had girls, so the name is disappearing there. One of his sons pronounces the name "Hit-lay", in order to escape embarrassment, and his grandchildren have taken their mothers' names.

But he says he has a Hittler daughter and a Hittler daughter-in-law who are also running to be councillors in the municipal elections, in other towns in France.

"Once you are known, the name begins not to matter. People look at the person behind the name. To my familiars, I was just 'Monsieur Charles'. So I decided to keep it," he said.

While Charles Hittler leads a centre-right list in Arcis-sur-Aube, his Zielinski opponent is in the far-right Patriot movement. In national elections, the far-right National Rally performs strongly in this area, about 160km (100 miles) southeast of Paris.

Antoine Renault-Zielinski, 28, is a customs officer recently arrived in Arcis. The second part of his name comes from his Polish mother.

"People are often asking me if I am related to Zelensky – to which I have to answer no, pointing out that the Polish name ends in an 'i' and the Ukrainian in a 'y'," he told BFMTV.

"On Sunday I began seeing messages about our names circulating on X and I thought it was just a silly joke. But gradually I realised that everyone is talking about us!

"I can see why people find it amusing. Personally, it doesn't make me laugh, but it doesn't bother me either. It would be better if people were talking about Arcis for other reasons, but at least we're on the map."

Oddly, Arcis-sur-Aude gave its name to a town near Odesa in Zelensky's Ukraine.

In 1814 Napoleon fought a battle at Arcis-sur-Aube against the invading Austrian, Prussian and Russian armies, and two years later German immigrants invited by the Russian government named their settlement Artsyz, after the battle.

The town was also the birthplace of French revolutionary Georges Jacques Danton.

Sunday's run-off in Arcis-sur-Aube pits Hittler against Renault-Zielinski and a third candidate, Annie Soucat. In the first round Hittler led by a small margin over the other two.

Hitler was a relatively rare name in Germany even before the dictator came to fame. Since World War Two it has all but disappeared.