Francuska - predsednički izbori

Interesting graph of where 2017 voters are now.

1) Everyone loses most to non-vote
2) Le Pen loses mainly to Zemmour
3) Bertrand is not very popular with Fillon voters
4) Jadot wins mostly from Mélenchon & Hamon

Much can change when more people commit. Still > 6 months to go! pic.twitter.com/uTnWSFse0L

— Cas Mudde (@CasMudde) October 3, 2021

There are all sorts of things a French politician might want to do in secret: conduct an affair. Embezzle state funds. Fight a small war in Africa.

But in the case of Emmanuel Macron, it’s something rather different. He’s been changing the colour of the French flag without telling anyone about it. Or perhaps we just didn’t notice. Either way, it’s definitely happening. One by one, government buildings are taking down their flags and replacing them with a modified Tricolore. The red is slightly deeper and the blue distinctly darker.
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Emmanuel Macron is also returning to a — literally — darker past. His preferred version of the French flag goes all the way back to the 18th century and the birth of the French Republic. It was Jacques-Louis David — pre-eminent artist of the Revolution — who created the definitive Tricolore in 1794.

So what is Macron up to? Why would a busy world leader spend his time fussing over his country’s national symbols? Could it be that Monsieur Europe is in fact a “flagshagger”?
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Unofficially, the three colours of the French flag correspond to the three words of the national motto: liberté, egalité, fraternité. In this age of lockdowns, some might interpret the darkening of the blue as the dimming of liberty. Certainly, it accords with a shift in the national mood. It was only in April that a thousand French servicemen and women — including 20 retired generals — signed a letter attacking the government and warning of civil war. Ominously, the letter was published on the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Algiers Putsch — a failed military coup.

Furthermore — and this bears repetition until it ceases to be true — Macron’s main challengers for the Presidency are Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, both of whom are candidates of the far Right. Is it a mere coincidence that the colours used in Macron’s version of the Tricolore match those used in the logo of Le Pen’s political party? It seems more likely that Macron is moving to reclaim the mantle of French nationalism.

It’s worth remembering where the outgoing version of the French flag came from. The key decision was made in 1976 by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. For his time, Giscard was a modernising president. His reforms included symbolic changes. For instance, he slowed down the rhythm of the Marseillaise — the national anthem — to make it less aggressive. As for the national flag, he brightened it up. In particular, the blue was changed to match the shade used in the European flag.

The two flags fly side-by-side just about everywhere in France. Thanks to Giscard’s innovation, they harmonise seamlessly. It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins — a visual representation of how the French state has traditionally viewed the European Union.

However, France is coming to realise that the EU is less of an extension of French sovereignty and more of a threat to it. Eurosceptic postures are no longer confined to the far Right, but have been adopted by mainstream politicians like Michel Barnier. This puts Macron in a delicate position. With Angela Merkel about to step down as German Chancellor, he must fancy himself as Europe’s biggest cheese. However, he’s still got an election to win at home against Rightist opposition — and thus he needs to assert French sovereignty, but without upsetting Brussels.

Symbolically, this is exactly what his changes to the flag achieve. By replacing the Reflex Blue in Giscard’s colour scheme with the older, darker blue, the Tricolore no longer merges into the EU flag. It may be a distinction that makes no practical difference, but it sends a signal.

Am I reading too much into this? Can we really imagine that a liberal rationalist and pro-European like Emmanuel Macron actually cares about a mere national symbol? Absolutely, we can.

Back in 2018, he made an official visit to the Mont Valerien fort near Paris — a site sacred to the memory of members of the French resistance. Greeting the waiting crowd, the President was affronted when a cheeky teenager asked him “how’s it going, Manu?” Instead of ignoring the young man, Macron told him off: “You’re here, at an official ceremony and you should behave. You can play the fool but today it’s the Marseillaise, the Chant des Partisans, so you call me ‘Mister President’ or ‘sir’.”

Was this just amour-propre — self-love — on the part of a prickly politician? Not on this occasion. In referring the national anthem and to a patriotic song of the Resistance, Macron wasn’t thinking of his own ego but the dignity of his office and its symbolic importance to the nation.

I’d be amazed if he accorded any less respect to his country’s flag. He hasn’t changed its colours because out of some trivial preference for one shade of blue over another. He’ll have thought long and hard about the deeper meanings.

Flags as we know them today are descended from the battlefield heraldry of the Middle Ages. But whereas a coat of arms is an exclusive possession — a privilege granted to the high and mighty — a flag belongs to an entire people. Contrary to the progressive critique, national flags are symbols of inclusion, of democracy in its fullest sense. While they mark borders in space, they signify continuity through time — an inheritance to be handed down from generation to generation.

Giscard was therefore wrong to break with tradition and Macron is right to restore the Tricolore to its former glory. Let’s see who salutes.


https://unherd.com/2021/11/emmanuel-macrons-secret-nationalism/

1976-2020 French flag on top, traditional and present flag on bottom. pic.twitter.com/Le51Y5FdYN

— The French History Podcast (@FrenchHist) November 23, 2021

The blue stripe has generally been a dark navy blue; a lighter blue version was introduced in 1974^[1] by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.^[10] Both versions were used from then; town halls, public buildings and barracks usually fly the darker version of the flag, but the lighter version was sometimes used even on official State buildings.^[11] The red stripe on the lighter version is also slightly lighter.^[9] In 2020 President Emmanuel Macron reverted, without any statement and with no orders for other institutions to use a specific version, to the darker hue for the presidential Élysée Palace, as a symbol of the French Revolution. The move was met with comments both in favour of and against the change, but it was noted that both the darker and lighter flags have been in use for decades.^[10]

Zemmour on the Italy-France treaty: “we have always invaded Italy. Italy or at least Northern Italy should be French” 🤌 https://t.co/CbUMjxsDwa

— Paolo Gerbaudo (@paologerbaudo) December 1, 2021

SONDAGE - Second tour de la #Présidentielle2022, dans l'hypothèse d’un duel entre Emmanuel Macron et Marine Le Pen
- 🟡 Macron : 51,5% (-2,5)
- Le Pen : 48,5% (+2,5) pic.twitter.com/ZftykfqFF6

— Rémi Clément (@rclmt) April 4, 2022