The European flag, which flew under the Arc de Triomphe for the start of the French EU presidency, was withdrawn overnight from Saturday to Sunday. Since then, right and left have united in denouncing this flags and deriding Emmanuel Macron.
During the weekend, Marine Le Pen hailed “a great patriotic victory”, believing that “the government had been obliged to withdraw the flag of the European Union from the Arc de Triomphe”. “Thank you to the massive mobilization of all lovers of France and the Republic to roll back Emmanuel Macron,” insisted the candidate of the National Rally on Twitter.
Eric Ciotti, the unfortunate candidate for the LR primary, had meanwhile qualified Emmanuel Macron as “uprooted president” who “does not like France”. “Putting only the European flag on the tomb of the unknown soldier” was “a mistake”, he insisted on RTL / LCI / Le Figaro.
Far from being extinguished, the controversy continues this Monday while the Elysee says that this flag was withdrawn on the night of Saturday to Sunday in accordance with the initial program “to symbolically kick off the French presidency of the ‘European Union in the same way as the blue illumination of several monuments’ in France.
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The rebellious presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon ridiculed on France Inter the “communicative caprice” of Emmanuel Macron that he said was the installation of the flag. The LFI candidate cited the “protocol” proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy to have the Lisbon Treaty adopted by parliament in 2007, stipulating that “neither the (European) anthem nor the flag would be recognized as such by France”. “President Macron decided on his own and without asking anything from anyone,” criticized Jean-Luc Mélenchon, adding: “There is still a decree which prohibits flaunting without the national colors. “
If during the weekend, the socialists and environmentalists had defended this use of the European flag, believing that it also symbolized the peace obtained in Europe thanks to the EU, the communist Fabien Roussel also, on Europe 1 found “unwelcome , regrettable that the French government, the President of the Republic, has chosen to erase, withdraw, the French flag under the Arc de Triomphe, symbol of the nation, of these women and men who fought for France “To install” the European flag instead, which is for many, at least for me – I have lived it in my region – synonymous with relocations, deindustrialisation (…), also synonymous with loss of sovereignty. “
For her part, the LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse accused Emmanuel Macron of having “a problem with the history of France”. “He went to Algeria to say that we had committed crimes once morest humanity, he went to an Anglo-Saxon media to say that he wanted to deconstruct the history of France and today this history of the flag”, a- she launched on RTL before justifying herself. “In Algeria, there were indeed abuses, there were dark pages in the history of France that were written but crimes once morest humanity, this is what we reproach the Nazis and Hitler, and I don’t think we can speak of crimes once morest humanity. “For Valérie Pécresse,” there are three positions: there are those who only display the European flag; there are those who only want the French flag; What I would have liked is for the French flag to be displayed next to the European flag, because I am a patriot and a European. “
