Just elected as vice-president of the Besançon agglomeration, an elected RN preferred to walk out the door when it was revealed that he was behind a Facebook account sharing racist, sexist and homophobic.
An elected RN resigned on Friday May 22, 2026 from his position as vice-president of the urban area of Besançon (Doubs) after a controversy over racist, sexist and homophobic publications that he admitted to having relayed on Facebook, we learned with the community.
Franck Bernard, 15th vice-president of Grand Besançon Métropole in charge of waste management and cleanliness, and mayor of Chevroz (143 inhabitants), presented his resignation after the president of the agglomeration and mayor (LR) of Besançon Ludovic Fagaut asked him to “take responsibility”, the same source said. “I completely disassociate myself from what may have been said”, “this type of publication has no place in the political debate or in the public debate”, Ludovic said. Fagaut Thursday during the community council of Grand Besançon Métropole.
He “respects women”, but…
Franck Bernard admitted during this meeting to being behind the Facebook account “Seven FK”, and to having “relayed” controversial messages there. Communist elected official Hasni Halem denounced “extremely serious comments: we are talking about people in Africa who have a lower IQ, therefore who would be inferior, about LGBT people who would not be normal people” and about “sexist and misogynistic” comments.
“There are starting to be a lot of bad apples in the RN,” added Hasni Halem. Referring to “private publications” that he only “relayed”, the person concerned defended himself against any racism or homophobia, also claiming to “respect women”.
According to him, these publications were only “small tackles”, targeting in particular two elected officials present in the assembly, the former environmentalist mayor of Besançon Anne Vignot and the LFI leader Séverine Véziés, to whom he apologized. “Racism is not an opinion, racism is a crime,” lambasted the elected Insoumise, refusing “any trivialization of the extreme right”.
Franck Bernard is the first representative of the RN elected vice-president within the executive of the Bisontine agglomeration. Left-wing elected officials strongly contested his election to this position during the first community council in April.
