France Changes Color of Official French Flag, Opts for a Darker Shade of Blue | Earth Indian

Paris: In a very unnoticeable change, France President Emmanuel Macron has changed one of the colors of the official French flag and opted for a slightly darker shade of blue. As per reports, the French president’s administration introduced the navy blue color over the flag almost three years ago, and until now there was no explanation given. Speaking to the media, staff members of Macron’s administration told that there were a couple of reasons for the change.

“There are aesthetic reasons, this blue is more elegant,” they said adding that it was a “very political” decision made “to revive a symbol of the French Revolution”. Only keen-eyed observers can notice the French red-white-and-blue tricolour flying above the Elysee Palace and also placed behind Macron at news conferences and speeches now has a darker navy blue rather than the previous bright blue.

As per an AFP report, The change had been made on the flags placed behind Macron at speeches from 2018 and then on those flying from the Elysee and other presidential buildings from 2020, said a presidential official. The official said that the navy blue colour “evokes the memory” of the heroes who fought in the French Revolution, the trenches of World War I, and in the Resistance during World War II.

For decades now, France has used both lighter and darker hues of blue on its flag. The country’s navy and many official buildings have long used navy, but in 1976 the French state introduced a lighter blue to match the color of the EU flag under then-president Giscard d’Estaing.

The change has finally been noticed after being revealed in a book “Elysee Confidential” published this Autumn 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 for aesthetic reasons during integration with Europe, but the flag that all the presidents took along with them ever since 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 had always had navy blue.

By Shivam Urkude || Earth Indian