French officials revealed to the media that President Emmanuel Macron has changed to using the darker navy blue on the official French flag, replacing the previous brighter shade. The BBC reported that the élysée Palace switched the flag to a new color last year without announcing publicly. According to European media, Macron has always wanted to change the shade to navy blue, which symbolizes the French Revolution.

In 1976, the then French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing used a brighter blue on the French tricolor flag to match the blue on the European Union flag. According to reports, there are still some disagreements on the issue of Macron's change of the flag color, arguing that the new color is ugly and will clash with the EU flag, while others prefer the pre-1976 version. However, many insist that the color change should not be interpreted as an anti-EU gesture.