EU flag is collateral damage as French
presidential campaign heats up
The unabashedly pro-EU Emmanuel Macron faced attacks
from all sides for flying the EU banner under the Arc de Triomphe.
BY RYM
MOMTAZ
January 3,
2022 10:49 pm
PARIS — On
the surface, the outrage that greeted the EU flag flying solo under the Arc de
Triomphe at the weekend was a political storm in a teacup. But it also showed
that Europe will be just one of many divisive issues in the upcoming election.
The
hoisting of the EU flag (and not the French one) was meant to mark the
beginning of the French presidency of the Council of the EU, which kicked off
on January 1. Instead, it turned into a fight over France’s history and
identity and gave a sense of what is to come in the highly-charged presidential
campaign that will dominate French politics until April.
Far-right
candidates Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour — not exactly fans of the EU —
quickly denounced the move as a “provocation that offends those who fought for
France” and an “outrage” (the Arc honors those who fought and died for France
in battle and houses the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier).
Even
mainstream conservative presidential candidate Valerie Pécresse said the move
was “erasing French identity” and called on President Emmanuel Macron to fly
the national flag next to the European banner, as former President Nicolas
Sarkozy had done at a ceremony reviving the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier when the country last held the EU presidency in 2008.
Far-left
presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon said the flag affair was
“disdainful.”
The attack
by all of Macron’s presidential rivals highlights one of the main divisions in
the campaign, pitting the one unabashedly pro-EU (if still undeclared)
candidate — Macron — against candidates with varying degrees of Euroskepticism.
Support for
the European project is the glue that binds Macron’s motley crew electorate,
according to internal polling for his political movement La République en
Marche. The attacks from rivals seem intended to stifle any attempt by Macron
to leverage the EU presidency for his reelection.
It is also
the first in a long list of likely mini-controversies around interpretations of
France’s history, and the place of the EU and ethnic and religious diversity in
it, that will dot the next four months.
Macron’s
government and supporters defended the flag placement, saying the soldiers
commemorated at the Arc de Triomphe would have celebrated the decades of peace
the EU has heralded.
“The
founding fathers of the European Union built it to end centuries of war and of
sacrifices by soldiers, including unknown soldiers. Seventy years later, this
controversy is undignified,” French Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti
tweeted on behalf of himself and Junior Minister for Europe Clément Beaune.
They
pointed to the fact that other important monuments around Paris — including the
Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and the Elysée Palace — were lit in blue in honor of
the EU presidency without triggering the same firestorm.
That
defense seems to miss the power of symbolism, especially ahead of big
elections, in times of pessimism and hardship. The French are some of the most
Euroskeptic people in the EU, and a majority say France is in decline.
Plus, only
the Arc de Triomphe was adorned with the flag of Europe, which for some harked
back to the occupation of Paris when the Nazi flag was hoisted on the monument.
The move
was also in apparent violation of a 1963 French decree stipulating that “flying
the colors of Europe on monuments is possible as long as it is done alongside
French colors, on the condition that the European flag be placed to the right
of the French flag.”
Though
other monuments continue to be lit in EU blue, the flag was taken down from the
Arc on Sunday, in what was apparent governmental backpedaling.
Beaune on
Sunday said it had always been the plan for the flag to come down that day, but
on Saturday he had said that the EU flag was meant to fly for “a few days.”
An Elysée
spokesperson denied the flag was taken down under pressure, saying it had been removed
as scheduled.
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