The new logo of the city of Perpignan -

Ville de Perpignan

  • The city of Perpignan has changed its logo: it no longer sports the Castillet, its old medieval door, but a saint, carrying a lamb in his arms.

  • This new visual identity is denounced on the left, as on the right.

  • Its achievement is also singled out, and social networks have seized on it: several misappropriations of the logo have been posted in recent hours.

Saint John the Baptist, holding a lamb in his arms, under the fire of a divine light: the new logo of the city of Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), directed for ten months by Louis Aliot (RN), is (very) far from being unanimous.

This new visual identity has thus abandoned the image of Castillet, the old medieval gate of the city, which has embodied Perpignan for several decades, to reconnect with the spirit of its first coat of arms.

The cross that the saint originally held has, however, been replaced by a pilgrim's staff.

"I wanted to modernize the coat of arms by giving it its historical anchoring," defends Louis Aliot.

It's our culture, Catalan is very much linked to religion.

There is no more Catalan than Sant Joan ”, the Catalan translation of Saint John the Baptist.

"A secular tradition recognized by all, and this well beyond the particular beliefs which belong to each one", assures the city of Perpignan, which is no longer "the Catalan", but "the radiant" on its new logo.

"An ostensibly religious image"

On the left, the return of a religious symbol in the logo makes people jump.

EELV Pays Catalan deplores “an ostensibly religious image, even screaming”.

"Insidiously but surely, the ideology of the French nationalist far right is making its way in our city and marks its territory", warns the local Catalanist party, Unitad Catalana.

Louis Aliot takes “Perpignanais hostage to his delirium of identity by sharing his post-colonial history with them, regrets the movement Yes to Catalan country, which wants a popular referendum to be organized on this subject.

What is the objective of such a media operation?

[Louis] Aliot may be trying to provoke clashes between Catalanists, Catholics, agnostics, leftists… ”

"Nerdy"

On the right, too, the saint and the lamb are making waves.

"This logo is aesthetically outdated, politically and socially reductive, with the return of religious symbols", scolds Jean-Paul Alduy (various right), who was mayor of Perpignan from 1993 to 2009. The municipal opposition group LR condemns a " logo suranné ”, estimating that“ Sant Joan has here the air of frumpy Gallic, for those who recognized him.

The others, less initiated, wonder what Jesus is doing on the logo, in a secular country, in 2021 ”.

In this logo, the colors blue, white and red also mingle with the traditional red and yellow of the Catalan flag.

And that too is making waves.

For his part, Louis Aliot indicates that he wanted "that in addition to Catalan values, he made reference to the French Republic".

The mayor RN assures, moreover, to have received "very many messages of support" as for this change of visual identity.

In particular that of Jean-Paul Garraud (RN), candidate for regional, who speaks of a "superb logo".

A "dated visual"

But if the religious symbol is at the heart of the controversy, its detractors also point to the quality of its production, entrusted to a local artist.

On Facebook, the Perpignan artist Steve Golliot-Villers points to a “dated visual, somewhere between the 1950s and 1960s”.

“This kind of sticker that our grandparents stuck to the back of their Peugeot 404, with a touch of the 1990s for the gradients, that we put in all sauces at the time thanks to the new features of Photoshop, ”he writes.

And the new logo has not failed to be diverted, on social networks: the saint is notably replaced by the Mandalorian, from

Star Wars

, holding baby Yoda in his arms or by the hero of the Franco-Japanese cartoon of the years 1980,

Ulysses 31

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