Emmanuel Macron changed the color of the French flag (and this is not trivial) – The HuffPost

via Associated Press

POLITICS – There are those who find that this story of the flag altered by Emmanuel Macron reflects the (very) personal power of the head of state. Like the ecologist Julien Bayou, who tance a “President Jupiter who decides everything, all alone, all the time”. Or those who, like the deputy LR Julien Aubert, would have preferred that the tenant of the Élysée make the choice of assume it publicly, instead of giving the impression of operating on the sly.

Either way, it is a fact. The blue of the tricolor was changed a year ago, at the initiative of the President of the Republic. An information mentioned in the book Elysee confidential, by Paul Larrouturou and Eliott Blondel (ed. Flammarion), then released from confidentiality by Europe 1 and franceinfo.

Behind this decision, a scenographer, Arnaud Jolens, as well as the memory advisor to the Head of State, Bruno Roger Petit. The idea: to abandon the blue chosen in its time by Valérie Giscard d’Estaing, who had matched the left band of our national flag with the blue of the flag of the European Union.

Which amounts, in reality, to returning to a navy blue, to the detriment of a noticeably lighter blue, or otherwise called “cobalt blue”. In the book by Paul Larrouturou and Eliott Blondel, the modification is seen as a return to the original flag, allowing the emphasis to be placed on “the values ​​of the Republic”, since it is this color that was chosen by the Convention in 1794.

Emmanuel Macron changed the blue of the French flag, on the Presidency buildings, on the advice of his scenographer Arnaud Jolens, in the summer of 2020.
(An “Elysée Confidential” info, in bookshops since 09/15, which is not Europe 1 info from 11/14. Cc @LouisDeRaguenel ?) pic.twitter.com/lcCSxeB9hD

– Paul Larrouturou (@PaulLarrouturou) November 14, 2021

However, can the Head of State decide to modify the national flag in this way? Yes, answers the historian Jean Garrigues, quoted by franceinfo: ”it is part of a certain number of privileges. In France, the presidency of the Republic is a kind of republican monarchy ”. A nuance which therefore makes it possible to discreetly convey a political message, making it possible to underline that the “European sovereignty” often promoted by Emmanuel Macron cannot be freed from national identities.

This modification was also acted on July 13, 2020 … the eve of the national holiday. For the moment, this modification (which mainly concerns the Elysee) has not been imposed on all official buildings.

See also on The HuffPost: Emmanuel Macron places the Cross of Lorraine on Hubert Germain’s coffin