The policy fields of (1) equality between men and women, (2) LGBTIQ+ people, (3) climate change mitigation and environmental protection and (4) immigration and the management of ethnic and racial diversity are at the centre of the political divides that sort both the public and political parties along ‘new’ dimensions of emerging transnational and cultural cleavages. Often, these political divides are expressed through 'culture wars', mobilising identities and symbols. Indeed, in several EU countries, the flags that symbolize women's rights, LGBTIQ+ rights, migrants/refugees' rights and climate activism have been the subject of contestation, especially when displayed in public buildings.

In this paper, we examine how these divides are expressed by ordinary citizens when evaluating the symbolic representation that elected local and national assemblies can choose to exercise by taking sides on these issues by displaying such flags on the façade of a public building. Using a survey of 13,000 respondents in 10 EU countries, we examine novel data on the cross-national awareness of the meaning of the four flags, as well as the views citizens have of the appropriateness of symbolically representing such causes. We focus on polarization around such symbolic representation and its connection to polarization around the underlying political divides.