In forty-eight hours, the European flag was hoisted and then withdrawn from the Arc de Triomphe. For the foreign press, what was to symbolize France’s pride in presiding over the European Union has become the banner of political divisions over national identity.
“Macron brings the flag of theEU”, headline the Italian daily The print, noting the disappearance of “Flag of discord” Sunday January 2. “Huge, blue, with its twelve stars, the European banner had been hoisted there, in the heart of Paris, on December 31st. It was a good omen (we hoped) for a semester, which had barely begun, of French presidency of the European Union. ”
Most “The candidates of the right and the extreme right tore their clothes this weekend by noting that the tricolor flag did not fly on this Parisian monument which shelters the eternal flame and the tomb of the unknown soldier”, report The mail. They shouted at the “provocation”, at the“Reached” to the French identity: the European flag cannot adorn the facade of a French monument without its national counterpart!
1is January, Clément Beaune – “40 years old, polyglot and Europhile, a face of eternal good boy”, who became for The print “One of the symbolic faces of this Macron ‘non-campaign’” – had specified that this measure “symbolic” was quite temporary and that the flag would be removed within a few days. “No need for ‘days’, but barely a night for the flag of discord to disappear”, ironically the Italian daily.
Divisions revealer
The object of the controversy has disappeared, but it is nonetheless eloquent. For The Irish Times, event shows “How the French political world is on edge”. It also suggests that “National divisions, as well as divisions within Europe, risk preventing Macron from making significant changes during this European mandate already complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the fact that he coincides with the French presidential elections ”.
For the European pure player Politico, the fact thate, “in just forty-eight hours, a European flag was hoisted – then withdrawn – under the Arc de Triomphe” especially indicates “That national identity is the object of a war with the overtones of the extreme right”. The debate is revealing of the “Forces at stake, while France will go to the polls in the spring to elect its president”.
More severe, The print judge that he shows above all that “The leaders of the extreme right, Le Pen and Zemmour, impose their themes. Migrants, insecurity, national identity, Islamo-leftism (the infiltration of national institutions by Islamism, which takes advantage of the naivety of the left). With the presidential election in sight, it would seem that the problems of contemporary France are reduced to these themes. ”