William Molinié and Louis de Raguenel
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07:23, December 14, 2022
Celebration and security. This is the difficult equation that the prefects and departmental directors of public security in the four corners of the territory will have to solve on Wednesday evening. Almost a year and a half Olympic Games 2024, the management of this event is a barometer for Place Beauvau, where the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is also expected at the turn.
Difficult equation especially as the forecasts of the intelligence services are uncertain. Impossible to predict precisely the number of French or Moroccan supporters who will take to the streets on Wednesday evening and will gather in the squares of the big cities to celebrate the qualification of their team at the gates of the football World Cup.
Fewer people if France loses
In a note dated this Monday, which Europe 1 was able to consult, the internal intelligence however risks drawing up the face of the evening: “Whatever the result, the supporters of the Moroccan team will come down in number to celebrate the victory or the historical course of this team. As far as the French supporters are concerned, the demonstrations will be less in the event of the defeat of the French team.”
The “unprecedented journey [du Maroc] arouses unprecedented fervor”, note the editors of this note. This team has become a “symbol of pan-Arabism”, they continue, arguing that “supporters from working-class neighborhoods now focus mainly on the exploits of the Moroccan team , some showing communitarianism highlighting solidarity between Muslim peoples for the last team representing them.
Thus, “if Morocco wins, the overflows might intensify and extend to other sectors with strong Algerian or Tunisian representation, in particular in sensitive neighborhoods which were not concerned during the previous match”, foresee the analysts, in particular the cities of Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, the large agglomerations of the Mediterranean arc or even the greater Parisian suburbs.
Delinquency of opportunity
If the “members of the Moroccan community” have rarely distinguished themselves in episodes of urban violence on the sidelines of major football competitions, underline the services, certain troublemakers did not hesitate during the last matches of their team to occupy in massing the public thoroughfare, creating processions of cars or even firing fireworks near crowds and families. Thus, a 7-year-old child was injured in the eye in Ain following overflows.
A particularity of these clashes, they are now systematically accompanied by delinquency of opportunity. The scenes of jubilation will also be joined by habitual thieves who will wreak havoc by provoking urban violence. “While the majority of people will gather in a festive spirit, troublemakers will know how to take advantage of these large gatherings to cause disorder”, continues this note.
The reaction of the unknown ultra-right
The presence of the ultra-right in the street might add to the chaos. Because on social networks, several public accounts and affiliated with this ideological fringe have evoked “a confrontation above all civilizational between the two nations”. Thus, in Strasbourg, according to our information, several dozen members of the “Strasbourg Offender”, a hooligan group made up of neo-Nazis, identity and ultra-nationalists, would have planned to take to the streets of the city center following the match to “patrol” and restore an order that they consider badly held by internal security forces. “It is not excluded that incidents break out,” warns a security source.
In addition, in Corsica, the police received a number of testimonies suggesting that young islanders had repeatedly attacked Moroccan supporters who had descended in numbers to celebrate the victory of their team. Like last December 10, when a dozen young nationalists – jackets/hoodies – kicked vehicles, breaking mirrors and chanting xenophobic remarks such as “Arabi Fora” – “Arabs out”.
While it is impossible to predict exactly where and when the episodes of urban violence will erupt on Wednesday evening, or what cliché will capture media attention, the government especially fears the image of a messy evening where sports and festive results would be crushed by a new controversy over a lack of security or a lack of anticipation. More than 10,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed throughout France, including 5,000 in Ile-de-France and 2,200 in Paris alone.
