President Macron’s government has angered traditionalists 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. In practice, “you ... risk having difficulties” without one, according to the French government website, which says they facilitate jobseeking, entrance to higher education, opening bank accounts and other activities.
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”.
Advertisement
Bock-Côté said French was being treated as though it were a “regional, provincial language” while Macron had relegated France to the rank of a “small nation”. He added: “When a nation stops naming the totality of its existence in its own language ... it is condemned to disappear.”
Officials say it makes sense to translate the terms into English and point out that almost all other EU nations with identity card schemes do likewise. But critics say that at the very least France should have followed the German example, which uses French, English and German on its identity cards.
In an article published by Le Monde this spring, Xavier North, general inspector at the culture ministry, and Barbara Cassin, a philosopher, said the decision to translate the French terms only into English was “symbolic stupidity”.
“It’s insulting for the French and for Europeans,” they said.
