• Was the European flag inspired by representations of the Virgin Mary? Yes, according to the members of the France Insoumise.
  • But the designers of this flag say that it is the result of a compromise between countries.
  • These designers do not speak of a Christian inspiration. For them, the stars of the flag are a symbol of "union."

It was Jean-Luc Mélenchon who launched the offensive. On 20 June, the newly elected MP for the France Insoumise discovered a European flag in the hemicycle. At the sight of the object, he exclaims: "Frankly, we have to put up with this? It is the French Republic here, not the Virgin Mary. »

Since then, the elected representatives of the France Insoumise have multiplied their attacks against the symbol of the European Union. On October 11, Alexis Corbière spoke out against the flag, in the name of "secularism." "Its creator, Mr. Arthur Heitz has always assumed: it is a religious symbol, details the deputy of Seine Saint-Denis. This symbolism of the blue background and its twelve stars is directly inspired by the pious medal dedicated to the Virgin Mary that Mr. Heitz wore around his neck, a medal from the chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. »

My intervention at the A. National on the European flag. This flag is a symbol of religious inspiration. We need secularism! pic.twitter.com/n5NNh2wqQi

— Alexis Corbière (@alexiscorbiere) October 11, 2017

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Two days later, this Friday morning, it is Clémentine Autain who advances at the microphone of Jean-Jacques Bourdin that "the European flag is the Virgin Mary and the stars are the twelve apostles. "

Clémentine Autain: "The European flag is the Virgin Mary. And the 12 stars are the 12 apostles"pic.twitter.com/n7ziGP7Ac1

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 13, 2017

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FAKE OFF

Does the flag of the European Union hide a Christian symbolism? Officially, it is clearly no: "the stars symbolize the ideals of unity, solidarity and harmony among the peoples of Europe," says the official website of the EU. Their number is not linked to the number of Member States. As for the circle, it is also a "symbol of unity."

This flag became the official flag two stages: in 1983 the European Parliament voted to make it an emblem, then it was the heads of state and government who took this decision in 1985.

One man's project?

Before being the flag of the EU and the EEC, it was the flag of the Council of Europe, which at the time had fifteen members. In the early 1950s, the Council was looking for a flag. This is what Alexis Corbière alludes to: Arthur Heitz, a civil servant and painter actually named Arsène, would have presented at the time a blue flag with a circle of twelve stars on a gold background. His project would have been retained. But this version is questioned by the testimonies of the time.

Arsène Heitz would have been inspired by a medal, that of the chapel of the Miraculous Medal of the rue du Bac, in Paris, which included twelve stars. Only one testimony attests to this, that of the canon and Marian preacher Pierre Caillon, now deceased. The latter says on his website to have met Arsène Hietz in 1989. The same year, the cartoonist would have confided on the genesis of the flag to the Catholic magazine Magnificat. However, there is no trace of this review in the catalogue of the Royal Library of Belgium or in that of the Vatican. A journal of the same name exists, but it was founded in 1992.

The cross, rejected

Robert Bichet, the rapporteur charged at the time with supervising the creation of the flag, gives another version for the meaning of the flag: "On the blue background of the western sky, the stars representing the peoples of Europe form the circle as a sign of union. They are invariable in number of twelve, symbol of perfection and fullness. »

Various flag projects were presented before the flag we know today was chosen. Among these projects, those using the cross, a Christian symbol, were quickly discarded, reports Robert Bichet: "This examination very quickly revealed the impossibility of using an emblem bearing the cross. There was indeed a non-Christian people in the Council of Europe: Turkey, and most socialists in the various countries of Europe, were hostile to this symbol. With such a context, it is difficult to imagine that a flag explicitly referring to Christianity, as suggested by the LFI elected officials, was adopted...

The result of negotiations

The Belgian Paul M. G. Lévy, who was Director of Information and Press at the Council of Europe in the 1950s and participated in the drafting of the flag, also remembers that several reasons were rejected. Finally, the members of the Council of Europe agreed on a circle of stars, but disagreements arose over their number. From fifteen, these stars finally pass to twelve, for political reasons and superstition (the number 13).

"It was then that the idea that I had already proposed as a symbolic retreat to adopt twelve symbolically and forever came back," says the senior official. For him, twelve is "a sign of perfection and fullness, it is the number of signs of the zodiac, the works of Hercules, the number of the apostles, the number of the sons of Jacob, the number of hours of the day and the month of the year." If the apostles surround Jesus and the story of the sons of Jacob is told in the Bible, Hercules has little to do with Christianity, nor does astrology! In the report, Paul Lévy is presented as the creator of the European flag.

So, who really imagined this circle of twelve stars on a blue background? It is most likely a collective work, the result of a compromise between the member nations of the Council of Europe, as related by Paul Lévy and Robert Bichet, and not the work of a single man, inspired by the Catholic religion.

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  • Fake Off
  • Europe
  • Flag
  • La France Insoumise (LFI)
  • Christianity
  • Fake off Europe