GETTY A French mayor sent police to evacate the headquarters of a local charity

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Fabien Engelmann is the far-right mayor of Hayange, a northern town located near the Franco-Belgian border. He claims Secours Populaire employees, whose job it is to help fight poverty, are using the organisation’s "charitable reputation" to meddle in politics and impose their far-left beliefs.

Mr Engelmann is also accusing Anne Duflot-Allievi, the charity’s regional president, of spreading pro-migrant propaganda after finding out she had helped an anti-nationalist association host a dinner for refugees. He said: “These people are promoting communist ideology.”

GETTY Fabien Engelman claimed the charity was spreading communism

For more than 10 years now, the town has allowed the Secours Populaire to live ‘rent-free’, which explains Mr Engelmann’s attempt to evict them and force them out of town.

These people are promoting communist ideology. Hayange mayor Fabien Engelmann

According to Marie-Françoise Thull, a Secours Populaire senior employee, the charity does nothing more than hand out food and clothes to people in need in a town faced with "crippling" unemployment rates. She said: “We are not involved in politics. We cannot fathom why a mayor would try and get rid of a charity wholly committed to helping out the more than 800 hapless locals.”

GETTY He claims Secours Populaire employees are using the charity to meddle in politics

GETTY The Nayange mayor is a supporter of Marine le Pen