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UKRAINE

Ukrainian flag on French Covid app ‘is not a cyberattack’

Those using the TousAntiCovid app, which hosts the French vaccine pass, may have noticed a small Ukraine flag appearing on the corner of the screen - but there's no cause for alarm.

Published: 25 February 2022 15:52 CET
The French TousAntiCovid app now features a Ukrainian flag in the top left corner.
The French TousAntiCovid app now features a Ukrainian flag in the top left corner. (Photo by Damien MEYER / AFP)

If you used the TousAntiCovid app on Friday, you might have noticed the small Ukrainian flag that appears on the top left corner of the screen. 

This was not the result of a Russian hack, as some initially feared, but an act of solidarity towards the Ukrainian people – authorised by the French government. 

France's TousAntiCovid app now bears a small Ukrainian flag.

France’s TousAntiCovid app now bears a small Ukrainian flag. Source: The Local

The symbolic decision to add the Ukrainian flag to the TousAntiCovid app, which is used to carry an electronic copy of the vaccine pass, comes after cities around the world illuminated their buildings in blue and yellow to show their support for the Ukrainian people.

Valérie Boyer, a Senator for the centre-right Les Républicains party, was among the many people who initially feared that the appearance of the flag was the result of a malicious cyberattack. 

“A provocation of hackers highlighting the vulnerability of our IT systems and our very expensive consulting firms?” she asked. 

The office of Cédric O, France’s Digital Communications Minister, has since confirmed that the flag was intended as a “message of support”. It will remain on the pass only on Friday.

It’s not the first time that emojis have been used on TousAntiCovid – the ‘mask face’ emoji often appears to remind French people of the mask rules, while a Christmas tree appeared over the festive period.

Not everyone appreciated it though – “No doubt that sticking the Ukraine flag on the #tousanticovid app will make #Putin tremble,” wrote the below Twitter user.

The Ukrainian flag will be displayed prominently on a number of French monuments over the coming days. 

On Friday evening and over the weekend, the Eiffel tower will be illuminated in the colours of the flag at the request of Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who is also running for the presidency as the Parti Socialiste candidate in April. 

The Hôtel de Ville in Paris was also lit up in the colours of the flag on Thursday evening. Other town halls in Tours, La Rochelle and elsewhere raised Ukrainian flags in solidarity. 

In the northern French city of Lille, the Kharkov bridge (named after a town in northeastern Ukraine with which Lille is twinned) was rebaptised the Kharkiv bridge, adopting a Ukrainian rather than Russian spelling. 

A Ukrainian flag also hung behind French President Emmanuel Macron as he addressed the nation on Thursday. 

“We will respond without weakness to this act of war, with calm, determination and unity,” he said. 

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POLITICS

Macron warns ‘mortal’ Europe needs credible defence

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:41 CEST
Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs credible defence

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade… the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he added, also pointing to the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Macron returned to the same themes of a speech he gave in September 2017 months after taking office at the same location – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years on has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron champions the concept of European strategic autonomy in economy and defence, arguing that Europe needs to face crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without relying on the US.

He urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Russia for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He said he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and added that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

Macron said preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment and backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade — as they were written up 15 years ago — if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors.”

Macron is, after Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far right and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the elections in his speech, even though analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign, with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

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