At the start of 2022, stopping controversy does not seem to be on the list of good resolutions from the political class. To celebrate the fact that France takes the rotating presidency of the European Union from January 1 – which only happens every 13 years in the Europe of 27 – the blue flag covered with a circle of 12 golden stars was installed under the Arc de Triomphe.
It was also displayed on the facade of the Elysee and the Eiffel Tower, this December 31 in the evening, at the end of the wishes of Emmanuel Macron.
Something to displease a part of the political class. RN candidate Marine Le Pen, saw in the images which concluded the speech of the Head of State the “symbol shouting that the alleged attachment of Emmanuel Macron to France is a lie”.
“Outrage”, “shame”
Valérie Pécresse and Éric Zemmour, for their part, denounced the presence of the only European flag under the Arc de Triomphe. “To preside over Europe yes, to erase the French identity no! “, The candidate LR was annoyed on Twitter, asking” solemnly “the President of the Republic” to restore our tricolor next to that of Europe under the Arc de Triomphe “. “We owe it to all our fighters who shed their blood for him,” she said.
The now-controversial presidential candidate simply commented, under a photo of the monument: “after the looting and packaging, the contempt,” referring here on the one hand to the damage to the Arc de Triomphe by of the Yellow Vests in 2018 and then the work of the artist Christo.
Other political figures, mainly from the National Rally, also spoke on Twitter. This is the case of the mayor of Fréjus David Rachline, who denounced “a real shame”, but also of the MEP and adviser to Marine Le Pen, Philippe Olivier, who asked that “the country” be returned “to French “. “The European flag on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier is an outrage: the Unknown Soldier did not die for this thing that is the European Union, but for his homeland, France! “, For his part estimated Gilbert Collard.