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Jurassian Pro-Independence Movement (Jura, Switzerland)

Mouvement Indépendantiste Jurassien (MIJ)

image by Ivan Sache

See also:

The flag is the Jura cantonal flag plus a blue stripe at the hoist.
Ivan Sache, 14 September 1999

The Mouvement Indépendantiste Jurassien exists to advocate independence for the 6 francophone districts of Jura.
Pascal Prince, 22 January 2000

According to the MIJ website, the blue stripe represents the will to create an independent state from Switzerland. The addition of this stripe to the Jura cantonal flag forms a rectangular flag, distancing it from Swiss flags, which are all square. The colour blue represents:

the Francophone culture of the region (the MIJ flag resembles the French tricolour);
the movement's will to be European (relating to the blue field of the flag of the European Union);
the movement's desire to see Jura admitted to the United Nations (relating to the blue field of the UN flag); and
the anti-militarism of the movement.

The remainder of the flag has the same meaning as the Jura cantonal flag.

Nasha Gagnebin, 1 March 2002

As noted on the main page the Jurassian flag was approved in 1951 by the Bernese government as the flag of all seven Jurassian districts (hence the seven stripes on the flag). In May 2020 Anne-Caroline Graber, member of the Bernese cantonal parliament, wanted to know from the government, if the Jurassian flag is still in force for the three southern districts, which had decided (beside the German speaking Laufen as fourth district) in 1975 to remain in Bern – whereas the decree from 1951 never has been repealed officially. The government answered that the flag hadn't been repealed indeed, but suspended in 1976 until a final decision would be made (i.e. the creation of a new canton). However, to the executive's knowledge, no other measure has been taken since, probably "because of the absence of any necessity whatsoever", as it wrote. The government does not see the need to do so today. It recalls that the current administrative districts still do not have specific coats of arms and flags. No flag is actually valid for the Bernese Jura as a whole.
Sources: News article, Wikipedia article with 1951 decree (German)
Martin Karner, 21 December 2023

[The Mouvement Indépendantiste Jurassien (MIJ) is not to be confused with the Mouvement autonomiste jurassien (MAJ) (formerly Mouvement séparatiste jurassien and Rassemblement jurassien). While the former strives for the independence of North and South Jura from Switzerland, the latter advocates the accession of the southern Bernese Jura into the northern Jura canton ("reunification") (geographical map). –
The MIJ has no actual website nor a contact address, where we could ask why they chose a flag resembling so strongly the French tricolore (that's what people associate with it in the first place), if their aim is to become an independent state. Or do they prefer to become a part of a French Département as a part of a French Région, rather than to be the Swiss "République et Canton du Jura"? Do they think they'd have more political and financial independence than now? –
Denominational differences no longer play a major role in our days, but cultural backgrounds have a longer lifetime: The districts forming the Jura canton are predominantly Catholic, while those districts who chose to stay in Protestant Bern are prevailingly Protestant.]