For yet another year, what should have been a celebration turned into a night of urban violence and looting in the streets of France during the celebrations after PSG’s victory. A situation that the French authorities wanted to avoid with an unprecedented police device composed of 22,000 police deployed all over Paris. However, it was not enough to control such a level of violence.
“It was an extremely difficult night with a large launch of projectiles and pyrotechnics against the forces of order,” acknowledged the Minister of the Interior. Laurent Nuñez this Sunday, who also reported that there are 219 injured, of which 8 are serious. The balance of the night is settled with a total of 780 arrests and 457 people in police custody32% more than last year, according to authorities. Furthermore, the celebrations have taken their toll death of a young man after suffering a traffic accident, and another is in critical condition after suffering several stab wounds. “Two eyewitnesses testified that they saw the young man crash his motorcycle head-on into some concrete blocks,” according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The victory in the Champions League final Luis Enrique’s team left worrying images, especially in the capital; burning cars, firing fireworks against law enforcement, and looting of shops, especially on the Champs-Élysées, Trocadero and around the PSG stadium. Some scenes that have generated great indignation, especially among the political class. The leader of the far right, Marine Le Penexpressed his discomfort through social networks; “Only in France does the victory of a football club provoke riots. Only in France does everyone feel obliged to lock themselves in their house on the night of a victory to avoid facing violence,” he wrote.
The mayor of the 8th arrondissement of Paris also expressed concern after the neighborhood’s police station was attacked by a group of individuals during the night. “We no longer manage the overflows, we suffer them,” criticized the mayor. Joan of Hauteserre and demanded a new doctrine of maintaining order: “zero concentrations” on the Champs-Élysées.
The party continues this Sunday
This Sunday afternoon, the PSG players will walk the streets of Paris boarded a bus to celebrate their second Champions League Cup, and later they will be received by the president Emmanuel Macron in it Elysee Palace. However, last night’s situation raises many doubts about the police device and its ability to contain the most violent.
On the possibility of closing the Champs Elysées To prevent these scenes of vandalism from being repeated, the Minister of the Interior explained that this would mean using half of the capital’s police forces for that area. “Using half of the police forces for a single sector, already ultra-protected, is a falsely good idea,” Nuñez insisted during his appearance on the possibility of blocking all the entrances and exits of the large avenue to prevent situations similar to those of last night from being experienced again this afternoon, during the celebration parade. “We are going to respond with the same firmness and determination as yesterday night,” the minister threatened.
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