President Emmanuel Macron ordered a change in the color of the French flag to echo heroism in the French past. The change was so subtle that it went unnoticed for almost three years.
The French flag is a darker navy blue than the previous light blue. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
It’s such a subtle change that it went unnoticed for almost three years. However, President Emmanuel Macron ordered a change in the color of the French flag to echo heroism in France’s past.
Attentive observers can see that the French red-white-blue tricolor that flies over the Elysee Palace and is also placed behind Macron at press conferences and speeches is now a darker navy blue than the previous light blue.
The color navy blue marks a return to tradition – it was then President Valery Giscard d’Estaing who in 1976 adapted the lighter blue to the color of the European flag, which shows yellow stars on a blue background.
The change was made to the flags placed behind Macron in speeches starting in 2018, and then to those flying from the Elysee and other presidential buildings from 2020, a presidential official who did not want to be named told AFP on Monday.
The official said the navy blue color “evokes memories” of the heroes who fought in the French Revolution, in the trenches of World War I and in the resistance during World War II.
The change was finally noticed after it was revealed in a book “Elysee Confidential” published this fall by journalists Eliot Blondet and Paul Larrouturou.
They reported that the initiative came from the head of operations at the Elysee, Arnaud Jolens, whom the journalists interviewed for their book. The change cost a symbolic 5,000 euros.
“Giscard changed this blue during the integration with Europe for aesthetic reasons, but the flag that all presidents have taken with them since then was not the real French flag,” Jolens is quoted as saying.
The Elysee official also pointed out that the flag on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was always the navy blue.
France takes over the rotating EU presidency on January 1st under Macron, a pro-European, while he faces a re-election campaign in April.
Click here for IndiaToday.in’s full coverage of the corona pandemic.
إرسال تعليق