Four days after the excesses that marked the Champions League final at the Stade de France, Emmanuel Macron demanded “transparency” from his government, despite the start of the latter’s mea culpa. The Ministers of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, in the eye of the storm, are expected for a hearing in the Senate.
“We could surely have done better”, conceded Olivia Grégoire, the government spokeswoman, after the Council of Ministers, while the controversy over the incidents that occurred on the sidelines of the Champions League final did not wane not. The head of state asked the government for “transparency, light on the facts, leads so that it does not happen again, and responsiveness”, she detailed. An expectation that would even be “an obsession” for Emmanuel Macron, insisted the spokesperson, while calling for “keeping a little composure, even if things need to be improved”.
As the legislative elections approached on June 12 and 19, the affair took a highly political turn, in particular on France’s ability to organize major sporting events one year from the 2023 Rugby World Cup and two years from the Olympics. in Paris. “Is France a great country capable of hosting major international sporting events? Yes and four times yes”, hammered Olivia Grégoire.
The two ministers will find themselves “under the fire of nourished and precise questions”, according to Olivia Grégoire, of the Law and Culture Commissions from 5 p.m., during a session open to the press and broadcast on the site of the Senate. “What we are going to try to find out is: where are the responsibilities and where are especially the difficulties? “Warned the chairman of the Law Commission, François-Noël Buffet (LR), on France Info.
Controversy remains high around the policing arrangements on the sidelines of the most important game of the season in Europe, won by Real Madrid (1-0) against Liverpool. The executive director of the English club, Billy Hogan, announced that the platform for collecting testimonials from Reds supporters set up on Monday had already received 5,000 responses in 24 hours. What he read “horrified” him: “Men, women and children, able-bodied people and others less so, were treated indiscriminately during the day on Saturday,” he lamented. .
Gérald Darmanin and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra have incriminated British supporters since Saturday evening as being largely responsible for the incidents, with “massive, industrial and organized fraud of counterfeit tickets”. However, the figures put forward by the French government remain highly criticized, in England as in France. According to Gérald Darmanin, “30,000 to 40,000 English supporters ended up at the Stade de France, either without tickets or with counterfeit tickets”.
This situation has, according to the authorities, led near the Stade de France to massive congestion, overflows and an intervention by the police, which did not cause any serious injuries. A “serious lie”, denounced Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, believing that Gérald Darmanin “should consider on his own that he must leave”.
“A minister who lies is bad news and does not bode well for the coming five-year term,” said LFI MEP Manuel Bompard, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s right-hand man, on France Info. On the grill, Gérald Darmanin however retains “all the confidence of the President of the Republic”, retorted Olivia Grégoire on Wednesday.
The French Football Federation defended the reinforced system put in place around the stadium. For the time being, the FFF and UEFA have estimated the number of “fake tickets scanned” at “2,800” on Saturday, according to sources familiar with the matter, confirming information from RMC Sport. But among these 2,800 counterfeit tickets may include real tickets that have been incorrectly activated, according to Pierre Barthélémy, lawyer for groups of French supporters present at the stadium on Saturday.
