What laws still govern the desecration of national symbols? Athelstane Aamodt takes a vexillological tour around the world
Last November, the Spanish comedian Dani Mateo appeared in court in Spain after blowing his nose on the Spanish flag during a comedy sketch on television, leading to a complaint from the National Police Union that he had committed the crime of ‘publicly offending Spanish symbols’. It seems odd at first glance that a modern European liberal democracy should have laws about such things, but it turns out that there are all sorts of rules around Europe that apply to the desecration of flags and national symbols.
European standards
The United Kingdom has no specific laws that prohibit the denigration of the ostensible national flag, the Union Jack (or the ‘Union Flag’ to vexillology pedants). Indeed, perhaps one of the worst things in the mind of the populace that one can do with the Union Jack is to hang it upside down, which happens more often than one would imagine. There are however town and country planning regulations that govern which flags do and do not require
