Emmanuel Macron’s office has darkened the blue in the French flags flying around the Élysée Palace to bring the tricolore in line with how it looked after the French revolution.

“Emmanuel Macron’s entourage has no desire to give the image of a president who touches the deepest symbols of the country, even if deep down, as you might imagine, there is a meaning behind it all.”

According to officials, navy blue was considered “more elegant” but also felt to “reconnect with a symbol of the French Revolution”. Others had more divisive theories: that the darker blue, now noticeably different to the blue of the European Union flag, signalled a rift between France and Europe.

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The EU flag is Marian Blue, the tone declared the official colour for the Virgin Mary in the fifth century. The French flag – regularly flown or placed next to it – was changed to match it in the 1970s when the late Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, a staunch Europhile, was in the Élysée and when it was decided to lighten the colour of the French flag for aesthetic reasons to avoid a clash of blues.

Europe 1 radio, which reported the story on Monday, said the move had been encouraged by Macron’s operations director, Arnaud Jolens, and adviser Bruno Roger-Petit, with a nudge from the naval officers who at the time made up the Élysée’s military chief of staff.

“No communication was made on this change of colour, no instructions were given to change or not all the official flags, the Élysée Palace affirms that the approach is an incentive,” De Raguenel wrote.

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Europe 1’s political correspondent Louis de Raguenel reported that the Élysée Palace is divided between those who consider the new flag ugly and say it clashes with the European flag, and others who are attached to seeing the flag of their childhood before the Giscard years.

France’s navy has stuck with navy blue since the 18th century, when the flag became a symbol of the revolution. The French state introduced a lighter shade of blue on its flags in the 1970s.