Political colours are colours used to represent a politicalideology,movement orparty, either officially or unofficially.[1] They represent the intersection ofcolour symbolism andpolitical symbolism. Politicians making public appearances will often identify themselves by wearingrosettes,flowers,ties orribbons in the colour of their political party. Parties in different countries with similar ideologies sometimes use similar colours. As an example the colourred symbolisesleft-wing ideologies in many countries (leading to such terms as "Red Army" and "Red Scare"), while the colourblue is often used forconservatism, the colouryellow is most commonly associated withliberalism andright-libertarianism, andGreen politics is named after the ideology's political colour.[2][3]
The political associations of a given colour vary from country to country, and there are exceptions to the general trends,[2][3] for example red has historically been associated withChristianity, but over time gained association with leftist politics, while theUnited States differs from other countries in that conservatism is associated with red andliberalism with blue.[2][3] Mass media has driven a standardisation of colour by political party, to simplify messaging, while historically the colour a candidate chose to identify with could have been chosen based on other factors such as family or regional variations.[4][5]
During theGolden Age of Piracy, the black flag, orJolly Roger of pirates such asBlackbeard andSamuel Bellamy became popular symbols ofpiracy. The flags representeddeath andno quarter to those who did notsurrender. TheCrossed Swords Jolly Roger, falsely attributed toJohn Rackham, has become a popular and recognisable symbol of pirates, particularly of pirates of the Americas.[8][9] The skull and bones also became a hazardous symbol to displaypoisons such ascyanide,Zyklon B and other toxic substances. The black flag of piracy would later influence the symbols of anarchism, such as the symbols of theMakhnovshchina and theKronstadt rebellion. The rise of internet piracy led to the symbols of the golden age of piracy becoming widely adopted, becoming the symbols of pirate sites such as thePirate bay. Black becoming a colour to representpirate parties.
Anti-clerical parties in the late 19th and early 20th centuries sometimes used the colour black in reference to the officials of theRoman Catholic Church because thecassock is usually black.[10]
InGermany andAustria, black is the colour historically associated withChristian democratic parties, such as theChristian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), theChristian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) and theAustrian People's Party (ÖVP); however, this is only customary, as the official colours of the CDU are usually either one of or a mix of different shades of yellow, orange or blue, depending on the regional branch of the party, with the nationwide party also using the red, black and gold from the German flag as official colours. The CSU uses a medium dark shade of blue as their official colour, as seen in their logo. In 2017, the ÖVP changed their official colour from black to turquoise, with some regional branches switching to turquoise as well, while others continue to use black, often in a mix with another colour, such as red, yellow, green or blue.
In Italy, black is the colour offascism because it was the official colour of theNational Fascist Party. As a result, modern Italian parties would not use black as their political colour; however, it has been customary to use black to identify theneo-fascistItalian Social Movement.[11]
In Malaysia, the People's Solidarity Secretariat (SSR), an umbrella youth organisation launched the Black Flag Movement (#BenderaHitam) in 2021 as a resistance-based protest against the thenruling Perikatan Nasional government.[13] TheMalaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) also adapted the colour black as their official colour.
In Russia, black was used for monarchism and nationalist movements, such as theBlack Hundreds before their defeat.[14]
In India, black has often been a theme in protests. In the state ofTamil Nadu, black is associated with theDravidar Kazhagam, a left-wing social movement, led byPeriyar, a social reformer and politician.[15]
In Brazil, the far-left socialist and anti-racist partyPopular Unity has black as its official colour.
Turquoise blue colour was shown in Iran as a symbol of royalism and support of the Pahlavi dynasty, and the flag of this dynasty (Pahlavi) is of this colour.
InAustria, blue is heavily associated with theright-wing populistFreedom Party and withpan-Germanism. It is the Freedom Party's official colour, and its members are generally referred to as "blues" in the media and colloquial speech.[22] The bluecornflower was a national symbol ofGermany in the 19th century, often associated withPrussia. It later became a symbol forPan-German nationalists in Austria, such asGeorg Ritter von Schönerer'sAlldeutsche Vereinigung. In1930s Austria the cornflower was also worn by members of the then illegalNSDAP, as a secret symbol and identifier.[23] After 1945, MPs of the Freedom Party wore cornflowers on theirlapels at the openings of the Austrian parliament, until they switched to the more "Austrian"Edelweiß in 2017.[24]
InCanada, theConservative Party uses blue. Also, blue is often used to represent Quebec.[26] TheBloc Québécois, a federal party centred aroundQuebec nationalism, uses blue, as do major provincial parties in Quebec like theParti Québécois andCoalition Avenir Québec. The colour is also used to represent the many provincial Conservative parties, often called the "Progressive Conservative Party" or PC, for short.
In theRepublic of Ireland, blue is associated with the centre-rightFine Gael party, going back to theBlueshirts, a quasi-fascist uniformed group that merged into the party in 1932. "Blueshirt" is a common derogatory term for Fine Gael, and they often use blue in party materials.[27][28][29]
InSouth Africa, blue is usually associated with liberal political parties, the most popular being theDemocratic Alliance, the largest opposition party. The colour blue was also used by theUnited Party, from which theProgressive Party (the most senior ancestor of the Democratic Alliance) split in 1959.[31]
InSouth Korea, traditionally blue was used byconservative parties. Since 2013, blue has adopted by the liberalDemocratic Party of Korea (previously used green and yellow), while conservative party change its colour from blue to red. This makes South Korea an exception to the general rule that blue represents conservative parties, along with the United States.
InSpain, blue is the colour of the mainstream conservativePeople's Party, but regionally:
In theUnited States, the colour blue has been associated with theliberalDemocratic Party since around the2000 presidential election, when most of the major television networks used the same colour scheme for the parties.[32][33] This makes the United States an exception to the general rule that blue represents conservative parties; the major conservative party in the United States, theRepublican Party, uses red. In 2010, the Democratic party unveiled a blue official logo[34] (seered states and blue states).
InVenezuela, blue represents theDemocratic Unity Roundtable, the large multi-ideological coalition of parties in opposition, probably as a counterpart toPSUV's red.
In most ofLatin America, blue is used as a colour of anti-feminism and, more specifically, anti-abortion. This colour was used as aresponse to the feminist/pro-abortion green. This originated inArgentina.[35]
TheSturmabteilung of the Nazi Party, wearing their brown uniforms
Brown has been associated withNazism, and in particular theNazi Party in Germany, because of theSturmabteilung (SA), whose members were called "brown shirts". They were modelled onBenito Mussolini'sblackshirts, and the colour of their shirts was chosen because many brown uniforms intended for thecolonial troops inGermany's African colonies were cheaply available after the end ofWorld War I. In Europe and elsewhere, the colour brown is sometimes used to refer to fascists in general.[36]
Brown has also been used to refer to thefar-right in general, rather than exclusively Nazism or fascism. In the 21st century, far-right parties in bothFrance andRussia have been represented with the colour brown, especially in contexts where other ideologies are represented by colours (for examplered forcommunists andsocialists orgreen forIslamists).[37][38][39] In these cases, as in the original Nazi German context, the colour brown was chosen to refer to the modern far-right on account of the colour's association with the NaziSturmabteilung.[40][41]
Brown is sometimes used to describe the opposite of green parties, that is to describe parties that care little about pollution.[42]
Buff, along with blue, was the colour of theWhig faction inBritish politics from the early 18th century until the middle of the 19th century.[43][44][45] As such, it is sometimes used to represent the current political left (in opposition to blue, which represented theTories and then theConservatives and political right).[citation needed]
InIran, green has been used by theIranian Green Movement, a political movement that arose after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal ofMahmoud Ahmadinejad from office.
Irish Nationalist andIrish Republican movements have used the colour green.[55]Sinn Fein, theSDLP,Fianna Fail andAontú all use green as colour. Though the official colour of Ireland is blue, green is the colour of St. Patrick and thus took on a particular significance for Irish nationalists in the 19th century.
InJapan, the dominantLiberal Democratic Party (LDP) uses green as one of its official colours. Although the party has used the colour red more prominently in recent years. Other examples of right wing parties adopting the colour green in its branding include theJapan Innovation Party and the now defunctParty of Hope.
InMalaysia, green is used by the Islamists, especially theMalaysian Islamic Party and several Malay nationalists as part of the Malay Tricolour (the other being yellow and red).
InPoland, green is used by the agrarianPSL party, and is sometimes associated with theThird Waycoalition party. Green is also used by the ultranationalist organisation ONR.
Magenta is a colour that started being used in the 21st century to replace yellow for some liberal andcentrist parties and organisations in Europe.[citation needed] It is not to be confused with the socialist or social democratic use of the colour pink.
InGermany although the official colour of the left-wing partyDie Linke is red, mass media uses magenta as the party colour to prevent confusion with the centre-leftSocial Democratic Party whose party colour is also red.
Orange is the traditional colour of theChristian democratic political ideology and most Christian democratic political parties, which are based onCatholic social teaching and/orneo-Calvinist theology.[citation needed] Christian democratic political parties came to prominence in Europe andthe Americas afterWorld War II.[61][62] Orange less frequently represents various kinds ofpopulist parties. Such is the case in Austria, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Turkey.[63]
Since 2004, orange has represented some post-Communist democratic revolutions ("colour revolutions") in Eastern Europe such as the "Orange Revolution" inUkraine.[64] This gave the colour orange a certain association with radical anti-authoritarian politics in some countries and it has been used as such by groups and organisations in the Middle East, for example inLebanon, thePalestinian Authority,Egypt,Bahrain andIsrael.[citation needed]
Humanism frequently uses orange for representation. It is the colour of theHumanist International, as well as the humanist parties inArgentina, Costa Rica andChile, and other humanist organisations.[65]
Orange is often used to represent themutualist current in anarchist politics, as a middle ground between pro-market currents such asanarcho-capitalism (associated with the colour yellow of liberalism) and anti-capitalist currents such asanarcho-syndicalism andanarcho-communism (associated with the colour red of communism and socialism).[66]
InBrazil, orange is the colour of the liberalNew Party and also is the colour of two parties associated with a socially conservative social democracy:Forward andSolidarity.
InCanada, Orange is the official colour of the social-democraticNew Democratic Party. DuringJack Layton's leadership green was used as their accent colour; The logo was a green maple leaf with orange "NDP" lettering. Currently light blue is used as their accent colour although it seldom appears and is not included in the logo (the current logo is an orange maple leaf with orange "NDP" lettering).[67]
InHungary the colour is associated with theconservativeFidesz party, which has been in office for several years. Probably because of the country's history, thatanti-immigrationism has become popular (seeTrianon).
InIsrael, the colour orange has become the dominant colour of the right-wing, with an emphasis on the religious-right. This is when, from 2004, the colour became the leader of a protest against the disengagement plan, and became identified with the right-wing camp.
InMexico, orange is not linked to Christian democratic movements (the Christian democratic partyPartido Acción Nacional uses blue). Instead, it is linked to the centre-left secular partyMovimiento Ciudadano.
InNew Zealand, the Electoral Commission rejected a proposed orange logo[68] for being likely to confuse or mislead voters by being too similar to the colour used by the country's electoral agencies.[69]
InSpain, orange is used byCitizens, a liberal party that opposesCatalan separatism. This is in contrast to the yellow used by Catalan separatism (see below).
Pink is sometimes used bysocial democratic parties, such as inFrance andPortugal. The more traditional colour of social democracy is red (because social democracy is descended from the democratic socialist movement), but some countries have large social democratic parties alongside large socialist or communist parties, so that it would be confusing for them all to use red.[71] In such cases, social democrats are usually the ones who give up red in favour of a different colour. Pink is often chosen because it is seen as a softer, less aggressive version of red, in the same way that social democracy is more centrist and capitalistic than socialism.
In some European nations and the United States, pink is associated with homosexuality and the pink flag is used as a symbol in support of civil rights forLGBT people;[72] it is commonly used to representqueer anarchism. This use originates in Nazi German policy of appendingpink triangles to the clothing of homosexual prisoners.
TheAustrian liberal partyNEOS uses pink as its main colour, though this corresponds closer to the use of magenta typically associated with centrist liberal parties.
Althoughpurple has some older associations withmonarchism, it is the most prominent colour that is not traditionally connected to any major contemporary ideology. As such, it is sometimes used to represent a mix of different ideologies, or new protest movements that are critical of all previously existing large parties andminor parties.
InAustralia, purple is used by theAustralian Electoral Commission, the independent statutory authority responsible for the management of federal elections. While use of the colour purple by political parties is not prohibited in itself, it is strongly discouraged owing to the possibility of confusion and the risk of contravening laws against misleadingly branded election signage.[77]
InBrazil, purple is the colour associated with someprogressive liberal movements such asCidadania andLivres. This colour is chosen because those movements consider themselves to be mixing the best ideas of theleft (associated with red) and theright (associated with blue)
In theDominican Republic, theDominican Liberation Party logo is a yellow five-pointed star on a purple background. It was originally a leftist party but today the party is seen gravitating towards a more centrist platform.
In Europe, purple tends to be used for movements, parties and governments that are neither clearly right nor left.[79] The colour is also used by theEuropean federalist partyVolt.
It has been used to represent thePurple governments ofBelgium and theNetherlands, formed by an alliance of red social-democratic and blue liberal parties.
In Israel, because purple has been a less politicised colour (and inspired by Spain'sPodemos), the colour has become the symbol ofStanding Together, a grassroots joint Jewish/Palestinian for social justice.[85][86]
InItaly, purple has been adopted by anti-Silvio Berlusconi protesters (seePurple People) as an alternative from other colours and political parties.
InPeru, thePurple Party is a liberal party which chose purple as its colour to represent centrism, between the blue of the right and red of the left.
In theUnited States, theWorking Families Party, which is aprogressivethird party, uses purple as one of its primary party colours. Purple is also used to describe populations with a near-equal mix of Democrat (blue) and Republican (red) voters, particularly in the context of Presidential elections. 21st-century election reporting commonly refers to "Purple states" or "Purple counties" for regions where neither party appears to have a clear majority among likely voters (i.e. contested frequently between the Republican Party, whose unofficial colour is red; and the Democratic Party, whose unofficial colour is blue). It has also been used to referencePurple America, noting that electoral differences nationwide are observed more on discrepancies instead of unity (seered states and blue states). Purple is also used bycentrists to represent a combination of beliefs belonging to the Republicans and the Democrats.[citation needed]
Red is often associated withthe left, especiallysocialism andcommunism.[2] The oldest symbol of socialism (and by extension communism) is thered flag, which dates back to the French Revolution in the 18th century and therevolutions of 1848. Before this nascence, the colour red was generally associated with Christianity due to the symbolism and association ofChrist's blood. The colour red was chosen to represent the blood of the workers who died in the struggle against capitalism.[91] All major socialist and communist alliances and organisations—including theFirst,Second,Third andFourth Internationals—used red as their official colour. The association between the colour red and communism is particularly strong. Communists use red much more often and more extensively than other ideologies use their respective traditional colours.
Additionally, in parts of Latin America, red is also the traditional colour of liberal parties. It was the colour used, for example, in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay for liberal parties.
InBrazil, red is used by theWorkers' Party, supporters ofLula andcommunist parties. The association of red withLulism and communism has become so prevalent in recent years that other parties that had red as a primary or secondary colour switched colours so as not to be associated with or confused with Lula, PT and the communist parties.[citation needed]
In theUnited Kingdom,Australia,New Zealand, andIreland, red is also the colour of the labour movement and the Labour parties in those countries (spelled 'Labor Party' in Australia). The use of red as a symbol is referenced in the British Labour Party's anthem,The Red Flag.[94]
In the heyday of theBritish Empire before 1960, maps, globes, and atlases typically used red or pink to designate the Empire or its Commonwealth;[95] the practice inspired theAll-Red Route and theAll Red Line. This derived from theRedcoats traditionally worn by the British Army. As soon as a colony became independent, it needed its own distinctive colour and the practice died out.
A key exception to the convention of red to mean the left-wing of politics is the United States. Since about the year 2000, the mass media have associated red with theRepublican Party, even though the Republican Party is aconservative party (seered states and blue states).[32] This use is possibly entrenched, as many political organisations (for example, the websiteRedState) now use the term.
Saffron is traditionally associated withHinduism,Hindutva and theHindu nationalist movement.[96] Saffron was chosen because in Hinduism, the deep saffron colour is associated with sacrifice, religious abstinence, quest for light and salvation. Saffron or "Bhagwa" is the most sacred colour for the Hindus and is often worn by Sanyasis who have left their home in search of the ultimate truth.
In Spain, because the colour green is connected to monarchism, environmental parties use teal in order to avoid clash of colours. They include the parties;Más Madrid,Más País andEquo.
In the United Kingdom, teal is used by right-wing populistReform UK, because it is seen as a version of the conservative blue.
In Canada, teal is used by the French-Canadian nationalistBloc Québécois.
In Austria, teal is the main colour of theAustrian People's Party. The colour was changed from black to teal as a part of the party's rebranding campaign after theSebastian Kurzcorruption scandal and subsequent drop in the party's popularity.
Historically, it was associated with support forabsolute monarchy, starting with the supporters of theBourbon dynasty of France because it was the dynasty's colour. Partly due to this association, white also came to be associated withJacobitism, itself allied with the Bourbons. White cockades, white ladies' gloves, andRosa pimpinellifolia (the 'burnet' or 'Stuart' rose) symbolised support for the exiledHouse of Stuart. Because some of the Russian "Whites" had similar goals to the French "Whites" of a century earlier,[citation needed] it was used by theWhites who fought against the communist "Reds" in theRussian Civil War (see alsoWhite Army), although the Whites included many different people with many ideologies, such as monarchists, liberals, anticommunist social democrats and others.
Because of its use by anti-communist forces in Russia, the colour white came to be associated in the 20th century with many differentanti-communist and counter-revolutionary groups,[101] even those that did not support absolute monarchy (for example, the Finnish "Whites" who fought against the socialist "Reds" in the civil war following theindependence of Finland). In some revolutions, red is used to represent the revolutionaries and white is used to represent the supporters of the old order, regardless of the ideologies or goals of the two sides.[citation needed]
In Italy, a red cross on a white shield (scudo crociato) is the emblem of Catholic parties from the historicalChristian Democracy party.[102]
In Latin America, it is not unusual for left-wingsocial democratic parties to use yellow, as red was the traditional colour of liberals, especially in countries with prominent red-using liberal parties like Uruguay, Honduras, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica.
In East and Southeast Asia, yellow is used to representmonarchies.[citation needed] For instance, inThailand yellow representsKingBhumibol and King Vajiralongkorn, apart from the colour of the royalists, known as the "yellowshirts". It was also the colour of the pro-monarchyPanchayat system in theKingdom of Nepal.
InCanada, yellow does not have any dominant political connotation, and so is commonly used byElections Canada as a politically neutral colour and as a high-visibility colour to mark polling stations.
In theUnited States, the colour yellow was the official colour of the suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[112] In the 21st century, theLibertarian Party's official branding colours aregold-yellow, grey, and black.[113] The gold-yellow colour is prominent because of the historical association with classical liberalism and in reference to a gold-backed currency and free markets.
In Germany, colours are commonly used by media and politicians as signals of political affiliation; this public practice helps them reach the increasing number of unaffiliated voters.[115][116][117][118]
Colour schemes used by major political parties in Germany include the following:
Some of the established political parties use or have used different colour variations in certain localities. This was common in British politics up to the 1970s. The traditional colour of thePenrith and the Border Conservatives was yellow, rather than dark blue, even in the2010 election Conservative candidates in Penrith and the neighbouring constituency ofWestmorland and Lonsdale wore blue and yellow rosettes. InNorth East England, the Conservatives traditionally used red, Labour green and the Liberals blue and orange. In parts ofEast Anglia, the Conservatives used pink and blue, while inNorwich their colours were orange and purple. The Liberals and Conservatives used blue and red respectively inWest Wales, while in parts ofCheshire the Liberals were red and Labour yellow. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Tories used orange inBirmingham, pink inWhitby and red inEast Worcestershire, while the Whigs were blue inKendal, purple inMarlborough and orange inWakefield.[120] The traditional colour of theWarwickshire Liberals was green, rather than orange.
In this map of the2012 United States presidential election results, the states are colour-coded by the political colour of the party whose candidate won their electoral college votes, but the political meanings of red and blue in the United States are the opposite of their meanings in the rest of the world.
In theUnited States the two major political parties use thenational colours, i.e. red, white and blue. Historically, the only common situation in which it has been necessary to assign a single colour to a party has been in the production of political maps in graphical displays of election results. In such cases, there had been no consistent association of particular parties with particular colours. Between the early 1970s and 1992, most television networks used blue to denote states carried by theDemocratic Party and red to denote states carried by theRepublican Party in presidential elections. A unified colour scheme (blue for Democrats, red for Republicans) began to be implemented with the 1996 presidential election; in the weeks following the 2000 election, there arose the terminology ofred states and blue states. Political observers latched on to this association, which resulted from the use of red for Republican victories and blue for Democratic victories on the display map of a television network. As of November 2012, maps for presidential elections produced by the U.S. government also use blue for Democrats and red for Republicans.[121] In September 2010, the Democratic Party officially adopted an all-blue logo.[34] Around the same time, the official Republican website began using a red logo.
This association has potential to confuse foreign observers in that, as described above, red is traditionally a left-wing colour (as used with theDemocratic Socialists of America), while blue is typically associated with right-wing politics.[1] This is further complicated by the diversity offactions in the Democratic Party ranging from conservatives to right-libertarians todemocratic socialists alongside the dominant centrist and social liberal elements of the party that outside the United States often each use different political colours.
The conservativeBlue Dog Coalition within the Democratic Party adopted the colour blue at its founding, before the 2000 election solidified the red-blue convention.
There is some historical use of blue for Democrats and red for Republicans: in the late 19th century and early 20th century,Texas county election boards used colour-coding to help Spanish speakers and illiterates identify the parties,[122] but this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not picked up on a national level. For instance in1888,Grover Cleveland andBenjamin Harrison used maps that coded blue for the Republicans, the colour Harrison perceived to represent the Union and "Lincoln's Party" and red for the Democrats.[123][better source needed]
In current-day U.S. politics, the colour red is also used to represent Donald Trump’s slogan, ‘’Make America Great Again’’and it’s signature accessory, a red baseball cap. The slogan and hat have become the most well-known political symbols in both America and across the world.
The colour orange has also seen an uprise in American politics in recent years, being used by those who oppose 45th and 47th president Donald Trump to describe his facial complexion, which appears orange due to his now iconic spray tan.
^Arbel, Rachel (1997).Blue and White in Color: Visual images of Zionism, 1897-1947. Tel Aviv: Beth Hatefutsoth, The Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora.ISBN978-965-425-006-1.
^Reuchamps, Min (17 December 2014).Minority Nations in Multinational Federations: A Comparative Study of Quebec and Wallonia.Routledge. p. 140.ISBN9781317634720.
^"WSPU Flag".UK Parliament. Retrieved3 February 2025.
^abSawer, Marian (2007). "Wearing your Politics on your Sleeve: The Role of Political Colours in Social Movements".Social Movement Studies.6 (1):39–56.doi:10.1080/14742830701251294.ISSN1474-2837.
^"Our Party".People's Action Party. Retrieved8 November 2021.
^Kumar, Rohit Vishal; Joshi, Radhika (October–December 2006). "Colour, Colour Everywhere: In Marketing Too".SCMS Journal of Indian Management.3 (4):40–46.ISSN0973-3167.SSRN969272.
^Cassel-Picot, Muriel (2013). "The Liberal Democrats and the Green Cause: From Yellow to Green". In Leydier, Gilles; Martin, Alexia (eds.).Environmental Issues in Political Discourse in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 105.ISBN9781443852838.
^Kathleen L. Endres and Therese L. Lueck, eds., Women's Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues (Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1996): 458, note 13.
.jpg)
