Is it possible to imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower? Probably not, but apparently it is possible — or for some even desirable — to reimagine one of France’s most famous monuments, the Hôtel des Invalides, without its signature gold leaf cross. That symbol crowns the majestic domed chapel commissioned by King Louis XIV, and a new official poster for the Paris Olympics essentially erases it.

At first glance the poster looks like an art-school attempt to portray Paris as a kind of Disneyland, with bright colors, happy people, and a stadium wrapped fancifully around the base of the Eiffel Tower. In reality, the French capital is mainly an elegant palette of beige and gray, Parisians are prone to complaining, and the only thing that surrounds the famous tower are tourists who these days have to shell out nearly $35 for an elevator ride to the top. It is round trip.

The small but glaring omission of the Christian cross and French flag from the Invalides’ dome — a French cultural landmark that enshrines the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte — has not only sparked controversy in France. It has landed like a symbolic hand grenade in the heart of the ongoing debate over national identity in the era in which Brexit can be seen as portenting a shrinking but pestiferous European Union. 

Politicians on the right side of the French political spectrum, such as the National Rally’s Nicolas Meizonnet, allow as to how the omission represented “wokism” at work. France 24 reported that a member of a party called Reconquest, which is further to the right of the National Rally, asked, “What is the point of holding the Olympic Games in France if we then hide who we are?” 

As significantly if not more, however, there is ire arising from other quarters, such as across the border in Italy. During a parley on Thursday for the European People’s Party, a pan-European political party, the Italian minister of foreign affairs, Antonio Tajani, inveighed against the French faux pas of canceling the cross. Speaking at Bucharest — in French — Mr. Tajani said, “It was not a good idea to erase the Invalides cross,” and, “It is not a good idea to erase our history and our identity, to send a message to others.”

The Paris-based illustrator of the poster, Ugo Gattoni, is of Italian extraction, but that was clearly beside the Italian statesman’s point. Mr. Tajani, who heads up the Forza Italia party founded by the late Silvio Berlusconi, and who works side by side with Prime Minister Meloni, went for the jugular: “No Muslim and no Jew would have erased their history,” he said to loud applause, adding, “If we do not respect ourselves, others will never respect Europeans. This is not secularism, it is stupidity.”

Secularism is ingrained in French society. It is a tradition that stems from some of the most volatile days of the French Revolution, when angry mobs stormed and desecrated historic churches and cathedrals across France. For Mr. Tajani, there is today seemingly a perversion of that secularism afoot.

“I believe in secularism: it is not erasing history, it is not erasing identity [and] a poster will not change the history of France and Europe,” he said, adding, “I hope they will change things in France.”

He is not the only one hoping for some change. After Mr. Tajani’s speech, there were reportedly whispers among  some members of the Gaullist French party Les Républicains that the Italian no. 2 — who does double duty as his country’s deputy prime minister — would make a better president of the European Commission than the current polarizing  paragon, Ursula von der Leyen. 

The French delegation of the EPP, unlike some center-right European parties like Poland’s Civic Platform (chaired by Prime Minister Tusk) and Greece’s New Democracy,  pointedly opposes a new candidacy of Madame von der Leyen at the head of the European Commission. 

With the National Rally chief, Jordan Bardella, recently renewing his vows to fight “Vonderleyenism,” it is becoming increasingly clear that in that quest, seen as part of a broader move to restore respect for national traditions, he is not alone.