仏国旗の青、ブライトブルーからネービーブルーに　３年間気付かれず

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】フランスのエマニュエル・マクロン大統領が２０１８年に国旗の三色旗（トリコロール）の青の色変更を命じ、ブライトブルーから伝統のネービーブルーにしていた。ささいな変化のため約３年間気付かれなかったが、今秋出版された書籍「エリゼ・コンフィデンシャル」で明らかになった。（写真は仏パリで演説するエマニュエル・マクロン大統領）
　エリゼ宮（大統領府）関係者が１５日、匿名を条件にＡＦＰに語ったところによると、マクロン氏の演説の場に置かれる国旗は２０１８年から、エリゼ宮などに掲揚されるものは２０２０年からネービーブルーになった。
　同著によると、変更費用は５０００ユーロ（約６５万円）だった。
　ネービーブルーへの変更は、１９７６年以前の伝統に回帰するもの。仏国旗の青は同年、青地に黄色の星を配した欧州連合（ＥＵ）の旗に合わせて、当時のバレリー・ジスカールデスタン大統領によってネービーブルーからブライトブルーに変更された。同関係者によると、パリの凱旋（がいせん）門に掲揚される国旗は、一貫してネービーブルーとなっている。
　同関係者は、ネービーブルーはフランス革命や第１次世界大戦、第２次世界大戦で戦った英雄を「想起させる」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/11/16-13:12）

It's a change so subtle it went unnoticed for almost three years. But President Emmanuel Macron ordered a change to the colour of the French flag to find echoes of heroism in France's past.
Keen-eyed observers can see that the French red-white-and-blue tricolour flying above the Elysee Palace and also placed behind Macron at news conferences and speeches now has a darker navy blue rather than the previous bright blue.
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, which displays yellow stars on a blue background.
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 on Monday.
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.
The change has finally been noticed after being revealed in a book Elysee Confidential published this Autumn by journalists, Eliot Blondet and Paul Larrouturou.
They reported that the initiative came from the head of operations at the Elysee Arnaud Jolens, whom the journalists interviewed for their book. The change cost a symbolic 5,000 euros.
Giscard changed this blue for aesthetic reasons during integration with Europe, but the flag that all the presidents took along with them ever since was not the real French flag, Jolens is quoted as saying.
The Elysee official also pointed out that the flag on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris had always had the navy blue.
France on January 1 takes on the rotating EU presidency under Macron, a pro-European, while he faces re-election battle in April.