Paris: The French flag now has a darker shade of blue than the previous bright blue, as desired by President Emmanuel Macron.
The French flag flying above the Elysee Palace and placed behind Macron at news conferences and speeches now has a darker navy blue over the previous bright blue.
But 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, a presidential official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The change has finally been noticed after being revealed in a book “Elysee Confidential” published this autumn by journalists, Eliot Blondet and Paul Larrouturou.
The navy blue colour marks a return to tradition — it had been then president Valery Giscard d’Estaing who switched the brighter blue in 1976 so that it matched the colour of the European flag.
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.
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