Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani has decried a poster from the 2024 Olympics which has controversially omitted the cross from the dome of Napoleon's tomb, calling the move "stupidity".
"Removing the cross from the dome of the Invalides mausoleum on the 2024 Paris Olympics poster is "stupidity, not secularism", Tajani said at the conservative European Peoples Party congress in Bucharest.
"We are Christians, we are a Christian-Democrat party. We cannot give up our identity," said Tajani.
France's government is "considering sympathetically" a Saudi government request to host an 'Olympic village' inside the Les Invalides miliary complex and historic landmark, sparking anger from liberals and conservatives alike.
The promotional posters for the Olympics by French artist Ugo Gattoni, which show the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and the Grand Palais monuments, were unveiled on Tuesday.
Gattoni said he had rendered the buildings “in the way they come to my mind, without any ulterior motive”.
The Paris Olympics are set to run from July 26 to August 11, followed by the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8.
