France embraces a new shade of blue on the flag

On November 15, President Macron commands to switch to a darker navy-blue shade on the official French flag replacing the lighter shade. France’s President Emmanuel Macron wanted to portray the darker navy-blue flag as a symbol of the ‘political’ French revolution. 

France embraces a new shade of blue on the flag  [Courtesy: AFP]

France’s navy and many official buildings have been using the darker navy-blue shade around the country. The country has used both the darker and lighter shade of blue for decades. 

In the year 1976, under President Giscard d’Estaing, a brighter shade of blue was introduced in the French Tricolor flag to match that of the European flag. 

Officially, no announcement was made for the change in colour of the flag since it went unnoticed for three years. The changes were made on the flags placed behind Macron at speeches from December 2018 and those which were placed at Elysee Palace and other presidential buildings. 

In the book, ‘Elysee Confidential’ published by journalists Eliot Blondet and Paul Larrouturou this autumn, the change has finally been noticed. It has been said that the initiative came from the head of operations Arnaud Jolens at Elysee. 

The darker navy-blue colour “evokes the memory” of the heroes who fought in the French revolution, World war 1 and in the resistance during World War 2. 

There have been debates around President Macron’s wish to switch to a darker navy-blue colour. Some argue that the new look is ugly and clashes with the European flag when placed next to it. 

The members of the Elysee Palace stressed that the change in the shade of the flag is not an anti-EU gesture, CNews reported. 

Author 

 Rupa Jana