Fun fact: EU combined has more gold medals than US or China #TokyoOlympics
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) August 5, 2021
I’d love to see the EU flag next to the national on athletes’ clothes.
Our identity is layered - we’re proud Italians, Latvians, Germans, Slovenians... and Europeans. Our sports should reflect that !🥇🇪🇺
President Macron’s government has angered the French by launching national identity cards featuring the English language.
The cards, which were brought in this week, provide an English translation of the French terms, including nom (surname), prénoms (given names) or nationalité (nationality) — a formula that critics say is belittling.
Identity cards have existed in France since 1921, when they were brought in by police to help single out and to catch criminals. In theory, they are not compulsory.
Until now, they have been in French only. But that changed in the new version of the cards, the first of which are being issued following a EU directive setting out the format that must be followed by all member states to include at least two languages.
In an article in Le Figaro, Mathieu Bock-Côté, a French-speaking Canadian sociologist, accused Macron of abandoning the “fundamental identity” of France. He said Paris had “conceded the privilege of European cosmopolitanism to the UK even though it has left the EU”.
