‘Triomphe’ for Macron’s right wing opponents as he is forced to remove EU flag

Macron suffers first defeat of the year, in wide backlash against ‘politicising’ France’s 6-month EU presidency

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022

Le Pen, Pécresse, and Zemmour claim the volte-face as ‘victoire’ over French president

President Macron suffered his first defeat yesterday, just two days into a year which will see him fight for re-election as French president.

Saturday 01 Jan 2022 marked the start of France taking over the 6-month revolving presidency of the EU Council. To mark the occasion a very large EU flag had been erected on New Year’s Eve at the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

It took no time at all for Emmanuel Macron’s opponents in the presidential race to denounce the move and call for its immediate removal and replacement with the French national flag, the ‘tricolore’.

Conservative and other right-wing candidates condemned Macron’s move

Within hours of the erection of the giant EU flag the official conservative candidate for ‘Les Republicains’, Valérie Pécresse, tweeted:-

“Presiding over Europe yes, erasing French identity no! I solemnly ask Emmanuel Macron to restore our tricolore alongside that of Europe under the Arc de Triomphe. We owe it to all our fighters who shed their blood for it.”

Présider l’Europe oui, effacer l’identité française non! Je demande solennellement à Emmanuel Macron de rétablir notre drapeau tricolore à côté de celui de l’Europe sous l’arc de Triomphe. Nous le devons à tous nos combattants qui ont versé leur sang pour lui. pic.twitter.com/4tQAGwZKmg
— Valérie Pécresse (@vpecresse) December 31, 2021

Madame Pécresse is now widely seen as Monsieur Macron’s main challenger in the presidential elections in April.

Marine le Pen

The leader of the French Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen, was even more vociferous:-

“A great patriotic victory at the dawn of 2022! The government was forced to remove the European Union flag from the Arc de Triomphe.
“Thank you to the massive mobilization of all lovers of France and the Republic to push back Emmanuel Macron.”

Une belle victoire patriotique à l’aube de 2022 !

Le gouvernement a été obligé de retirer le drapeau de l’Union européenne de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Merci à la mobilisation massive de tous les amoureux de la France et de la République pour faire reculer Emmanuel Macron. https://t.co/BNNJ0BJMhG
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) January 2, 2022

Eric Zemmour

Eric Zemmour, the French right-winger who has risen dramatically in the polls to rival Marine Le Pen for the more right-wing vote in France also tweeted:-

“The Arc de Triomphe under Macron: after the sacking and packaging, the outrage.”

He also re-tweeted pictures of young ‘Generation Z’ activists in front of the French national monument, waving French flags.

L'Arc de Triomphe sous Macron : après le saccage et l'empaquetage, l’outrage. pic.twitter.com/0fLIOBSdO6
— Eric Zemmour (@ZemmourEric) December 31, 2021

The Arc de Triomphe and its nudes

Measuring 50 metres in height, the Arc de Triomphe stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle which has 12 busy roads heading off it in a star formation. It is France’s principal national memorial honouring those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and is used for Remembrance ceremonies for all wars. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

Designed in 1806, its relief famously depicts nude French youths battling Germanic soldiers wearing armour.

Observations

The ‘Triumph at the Arc de Triomphe’ for the French right has undoubtedly been a blow to President Macron’s hopes to start France’s rotating presidency of the EU Council with a flourish, as he entered the last 100 days of the race to retain his own presidency of France.

President Macron’s ardently pro-EU Europe Minister, the anti-British Clement Beaune, went on air yesterday to claim that it had always been the government’s intention to remove the EU flag ‘after a few days’. "We didn't back down, there was no change of plan..." he said. Very few in France believe this. He also went on to say that: "I fully assume France's destiny is in Europe."

Whilst this latest episode might seem relatively trivial, it demonstrates two things: firstly that the French right is undoubtedly gaining in strength, after several years of Macron domination. Secondly, it shows the strength of French pride in their own country, in contrast to Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to subsume France into an EU superstate.

Macron’s opponents have been able to make hay over the latter point, forcing the president to retreat from some of his more forceful statements on this subject in the last couple of years.

If Macron is to win in April, he may be forced to give up even more of his EU ideals. We are watching this space with interest.

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[ Sources: Twitter accounts for French politicians | Clement Beaune on France Inter ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 03 Jan 2022

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Reader Comments 6

1. Andy , Monday, January 03, 2022, 09:18:

Almost unbelievably inept of the tinpot idiot. Everyone with an ounce of common sense would have not even thought of doing that. Shows the arrogance of the man.

2. James Bertram , Monday, January 03, 2022, 10:24:

With luck Macron will soon be dragged off to the ICC, preferably la guillotine, for Crimes Against Humanity -
-
https://thereisnopandemic.n...
'This is one of the latest video discussions lasting around 19 minutes between Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, lawyer Viviana Fischer and UK doctor Sam White on the findings that a small number of vaccine batches has been associated with the majority of deaths and injuries from the vaccines....
Wodarg: It isn’t true that there is the same stuff in all the vaccines. We have hard evidence that the batches of vaccine vials contain different ingredients....There are 120 new vaccines in the pipeline. They all want to try out their products and now is the time they can do it because we’re still afraid that we need a vaccine. It’s worse than Nuremberg what’s happening now. It is horrible – there are thousands of Mengeles now. Some of them don’t know this, but some of them know very well what they are doing. And they kill thousands of people.
Fuellmich: Intentionally.
Wodarg: Yes, intentionally....
Fuellmich: This makes it easy for any lawyer in this world to show intent. It is inescapable – from these graphs, you can show intent. They are deliberately using different dosages, co-ordinated with each other so that they won’t interfere with each other in order to try and find out what kills the best or maims the best.
These findings in particular have immense legal repercussions – immense, because once you arrive at the conclusion that they’re doing this deliberately, intentionally or as Martin Schwab puts it maliciously, once you arrive at this conclusion, the floodgates are open in the United States for punitive damages...'

3. Have you wondered , Monday, January 03, 2022, 10:28:

Do You Wonder if it’s not a bit odd that a country that has succumbed and been dominated twice would want to celebrate being a vassal state yet again?
M. Beaune - Do you think that all those soldiers of France, and the brave resistance fighters with their families who gave their lives along with allied forces might be turning in their graves?

4. Carol Coleman , Monday, January 03, 2022, 14:10:

Didn't nicola sturgeon try the flag flying trick in Scotland until boris got rid of all eu flags from government buildings?

5. jon livesey , Monday, January 03, 2022, 19:17:

3. Have you wondered : I think that if you take one long-term view of European history, the past two centuries has been the gradual integration of Germany's neighbours into its economy. The three wars - that includes the War of 1870 - happened because Germany got too impatient to allow time for the takeover to take place peacefully.
If you buy that story, and of course you can never really prove anything about history, then the EU is just the realization that this process is inevitable and may as well take place through integration rather than conquest.
And if you don't buy that story, you note that Europe has had umpteen Empires since the Roman, all pretty temporary, and all ending violently.
In either case, Macron does seem rather eager to make everyone seem more patriotic than he is, and as usual, we are well out of it. In school, I was taught European history from the viewpoint of a spectator, and I enjoy the feeling that we are going back to that.

6. Michael Burnhill , Tuesday, January 04, 2022, 05:22:

What politicians seem to forget is they are there to serve the people not their political ambitions or big business!

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