Hittler Faces Challengers In Viral French Mayor’s Race: ‘It’s Out Of Control’

A French mayor named Hittler is running for re-election in a small town in a race that has gained the internet’s attention.

Charles Hittler, the incumbent mayor in Arcis-sur-Aube, won the first round of municipal elections on March 15 and now faces a runoff against two candidates, one of them named Antoine Renault-Zielinski, the BBC reported. The coincidence, evoking Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, sent French social media into overdrive.

Hittler captured 37.81% of the vote with 411 ballots, according to election results published by France Bleu. Annie Soucat trailed with 32.20%, and Antoine Renault-Zielinski finished third at 29.99% out of 326 votes cast for his list. All three will advance to the March 22 second round in the town of over 2,800 residents, where turnout reached 58.69%. (RELATED: Zelenskyy Promotes Ukraine’s Top Spy Following Corruption Scandal)

“It has gone completely crazy,” Hittler told 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,” he added.

“Ça ne me fait pas rigoler”, “je le vis bien, je suis habitué”: le surprenant duel Hittler-Zielenski aux municipales raconté par les candidatshttps://t.co/m4lDuIUmxA

— BFM (@BFMTV) March 18, 2026

Hittler told the BBC his surname has origins in the Alsace, a region that borders Germany. His father endured forced labor in Germany during World War II and considered changing the surname afterward but abandoned the effort because of cost and paperwork, he continued.

Hittler, 75, told BFM in French that he kept the name to prove something positive could be attached to it and that what matters is the person behind it, L’Avenir reported.

Renault-Zielinski, 28, told BFM he chose to carry both his father’s and Polish mother’s surnames as a tribute, L’Avenir reported. He recognized the phonetic resemblance to Zelensky but said he was “very surprised” by how far the “joke” traveled.

Zielinksi belongs to Les Patriotes, a party created by ex-National Rally figure Florian Philippot, 2oMinutes reported, citing Actu.fr. The local prefecture listed all three candidates without official party affiliation. After the first round, vandals allegedly defaced Renault-Zielinski’s campaign posters with anti-right wing slogans, according to regional outlet L’Est Eclair.

Arcis-sur-Aube has voted toward the right befoer. Marine Le Pen defeated Emmanuel Macron there in the 2022 presidential runoff with 56.42% of the vote, according to France Bleu.

The town has seen dramatic contests before. French Emperor Napoleon I fought invading Austrian, Prussian and Russian forces there in 1814, and French revolutionary Georges Jacques Danton was born there, the BBC noted.