France celebrates its National Holiday Day this Friday amid an unusual security deployment, fearing new riots like those that shook the country two weeks ago after the death of Nahel, the 17-year-old who died. by the shot of an agent at a police checkpoint in Nanterre, on the Parisian outskirts.
So that the scenes of violence of the first days of July are not repeated (looting, fires, attacks on public buildings…) the most conflictive cities are going to be ‘armored’, especially Paris. The Government has decided not to cancel the planned celebrations, although some towns have decided to suspend them, as a precaution. From Thursday to Saturday there will be 130,000 agents deployed, including police, gendarmes and firefighters: 10,000 in Paris. 45,000 agents every day and about 40,000 firefighters.
They are teams “equipped and organized against urban violence.” In addition to the deployment of personnel, there will be helicopters, armored vehicles, and the elite brigades of law enforcement (under the acronym RAID, GIGN, BRI) will participate, which are the ones involved in anti-terrorist deployments or hostage-taking, for example. . They also participated in the riots two weeks ago.
July 14 is usually a troubled day. Last year, between July 13 and 14, there were 800 arrests, more than 700 vehicles were burned and there were riots in Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and Dijon. “This year the July 14 party comes in a particular context, after the extreme violence that we experienced last week,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said at a press conference to present the device.
Transport, buses and trams, will stop providing service from 10:00 p.m. in large cities to prevent them from being set on fire. In the Paris region, dozens of popular neighborhoods have decided to suspend the festivities, among them is Nanterre, the town where Nahel was from, the young man killed by a police shot a few weeks ago.
THE ELYSSEUM ANNOUNCES FIRMNESS
“We want to guarantee security and that citizens can enjoy the national holiday without having to suffer the acts of some criminals, (we will act) with great firmness with those who want to spoil these national holiday nights and with a systematic order to stop the rioters,” according to the minister.
French President Emmanuel Macron met this Thursday with some units that will participate in the traditional parade on Friday, which will also take place amid important security measures.
Macron was scheduled to address the country on July 14 to take stock of the last 100 days. This was said after the crisis opened by the approval of the controversial pension reform, which was opposed by almost the entire country and which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
WITHOUT MACRON’S INTERVENTION
It was enacted after months of strong protests. Then, Macron announced that he would give himself 100 days to calm things down and take stock on the occasion of the national holiday. Finally, he will not speak on Friday to avoid altercations, although yesterday he said: “I am not in the habit of postponing things that I have not scheduled (…) I did not say the date or the way,” he responded to journalists on Wednesday in Lithuania, where he attended the NATO summit. If there is any altercation, we will intervene with the greatest determination so that our citizens can experience the party calmly,” he said.
Launching fireworks and buying or selling pyrotechnics have also been prohibited, to prevent them from being used to set buildings or cars on fire. Since June 27, two days after Nahel’s death, 150,000 mortars and fireworks have been seized. All this security deployment will continue until Saturday.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project