Chaos at the Stade de France: Gérald Darmanin defends himself and again accuses British supporters

Gerald Darmanin persist and sign. Auditioned on Wednesday June 1, 2022 by the Law and Culture Commissions of the Senate about the management deemed “calamitous” of the Champions League final in Stade de France, the Minister of the Interior did not deviate from his version. Before the senators, he reaffirmed that the presence of “thousands of British fans without tickets” had led to the fiasco before the meeting between Real Madrid and Liverpool and that the strike on the RIS B didn’t fix anything.

But was the fiasco simply the result of “conjunctions” which, as Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra indicated during the hearing was “a form of facts which in a dynamic and exponential process made that each step taken amplified the difficulties increasingly encountered”? Or the result of a failure on the part of state services?

“Problems only with the British”

“The problems only occurred at gates X, Y and Z, which is the British turn. There were no problems in all the other doors. At 9 p.m., 97% of Madrid supporters are in their seats when only 50% are on the Liverpool side. Our problems only took place in the British bends,” the minister hammered several times during the 3 hour hearing.

Since Saturday May 28, he has multiplied his speeches to express his “regrets” and also to charge the British supporters “good or bad times”, which, according to him, are largely responsible for the disorganization reviled by many. observers present on site. The day after the meeting, the number of 35,000 additional UK supporters was released to the media.

A number that has since raised questions, when 20,000 places had been reserved for the Liverpool club and the FFF and UEFA announced on Tuesday that only 2,800 counterfeit banknotes were checked at the gates of the stadium.

We never said that there had been 35,000 counterfeit notes. These are 35,000 supporters who were either not ticket holders or with counterfeit tickets.

” They disappeared ? »

But the number continues to raise eyebrows whileno crowd image taking the opposite path supports his point. ” They disappeared ? asked the senators. “There are CCTV images which prove that the RER D platforms were full of Liverpool supporters from the first half and during the second half. If you really attend a football match, you stay until the end! », assures Gérald Darmanin.

Images that will not be broadcast “for rights reasons”. However, the SNCF ensured from Monday with 20 minutes “that no particular flow, or greater than usual, was recorded in the other direction after the start of the match”.

A bad strike

Second culprit: strike on the RER B. Saturday May 28, it led to a significant postponement of the flow of travelers on the RER D. According to figures communicated by the Ministry of the Interior, 37,000 people arrived at the Stade de France via the RER D when only 6,500 took the RER B. However, the filtering points were more important at the exit of the RER B than the RER D.

“These were not unforeseen circumstances. From May 24, four days before, it had been announced by the unions, ”recalled François-Noël Buffet, president of the law commission. However, this is where the problem arose. Between 7 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., until 15,000 people were collected under the A86 motorway tunnel which led to the stadium from the RER D and which in the meantime has become a real bottleneck thanks to the pre-filtering operations.

At 7:45 p.m., the Prefect of police, Didier Lallement decided to lift the filtering. “This decision was taken to avoid tragedies. Contrary to other matters of public order, in other stadiums and in other circumstances, there were no serious injuries and there was no death”, said tagged the minister.

Two investigations opened by the IGPN

Except that this lifting has the new consequence of the spilling of the crowd around the stadium. “To deal with it, Didier Lallement took the decision to repatriate public order to put them on the other side of the gates of the enclosure and prevent them from giving up”, reports Gérald Darmanin. It was at this point that the police and gendarmes made use of tear gas, sometimes on families and children, to disperse the supporters. Images that have toured television channels, in France and also abroad.

“The issue of the use of tear gas and the images can be shocking. Individuals have committed disproportionate acts and sanctions will be taken. I will come back and communicate them to the presidents of the commission for laws and cultural affairs,” he acknowledged. Two investigations were opened by the IGPN following reports. “I personally saw two facts and asked the Prefect of Police for sanctions for these two law enforcement officials,” he added.

However, he defended the protocol for maintaining order: “I don’t really see how you can push back the extremely large crowds and distinguish between supporters who have real tickets and fake tickets and whose fakes look like the real ones, when people gather and push people who are in this crowd. He also praised the lack of use of de-encirclement grenades and LBDs, which were the other means available to the police.

An “opportunity” delinquency

Another consequence: the concentration of police officers around the stadium, to the detriment of the pathways. A change of direction which, according to him, would have made it possible to “deliver the field to a delinquency of opportunity”. “Delinquency is not structural at Seine-Saint-Denis or at the Stade de France but it was there, helped by the fact that there were thousands more people, who were foreigners, did not fit into the stadium, with a single RER that was working and with public order that started from the field to be able to keep the gates, ”he summarized. He clarified “that no complaint of sexual assault has been filed”, while people have reported it on social networks.

As a MEA culpa, Gérald Darmanin announced the possibility for British and Spanish supporters to be able to file a complaint, as of Monday, in their countries of origin. For her part, the Minister of Sports specified thatcompensation had been requested for 2,700 UK supporters with tickets who had not been able to attend the match. Prefect Michel Cadot will be responsible for bringing together the analyzes shared by all the stakeholders in a report that will be made public.

Was this article helpful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Seine-Saint-Denis in the My Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.

–