The mayor of a French town has placed posters around his town warning locals that the state plans to “impose” migrants on them. He has called for a referendum on whether to accept migrants from the Jungle camp outside Calais when the camp is dismantled.

Robert Ménard, the mayor of the ancient town of Beziers in Languedoc has had the posters placed in prominent positions around town.

Topped and tailed with the slogan “Migrants in our town centre!”, the posters feature a picture of migrant men, some wearing hoodies, congregating outside a cathedral. Text across the image reads: “The state is imposing them on us. That’s it, they’re coming…”

Ménard, who represents the French National Front says the posters are in response to government plans to relocate migrants from the Calais jungle shantytown to towns around the country, the Daily Mail has reported.

Speaking to French radio Mr Ménard said: “I’ll do everything to ensure that these migrants don’t settle in.”

He added that he hadn’t been told about plans to locate a migrant reception centre in the town, and has called for a referendum to be held within his town on whether or not to accept it.

However, the referendum is unlikely to go ahead. Last month the French courts blocked attempts by the town of Allex to hold a similar referendum, while the pro-migrant group SOS Racism has called on the governor of Languedoc-Roussillon to step in and stop Ménard’s planned referendum.

Meanwhile, the government’s anti-racism organisation, DILCRA, has called on the prosecutor’s office in Beziers to investigate what it has called a “flagrant” example of incitement to hatred.

It said: “The repeated targeting of people or groups because of their origin or their beliefs cannot be accepted.”

Ménard, an experienced journalist and founder of Reporters Without Borders has repeatedly made headlines for his firm views on immigration.

In September an anti-racism group accused Ménard of a hate crime and announced that it would be taking legal action against him after he told a French news channel that being French means, “in the words of Charles De Gaulle, being European, white and Catholic”.