Willingly presented as the first full-scale test before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Rugby World Cup will be at the heart of an exceptional security system. The event, which begins this Friday and will end with a final scheduled for October 28, will be the subject of “unprecedented measures” announced Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday morning at the Ministry of the Interior. To lock down this competition which will be followed by hundreds of millions of viewers, the host of Place Beauvau announced the daily mobilization of 5,100 police and gendarmes, with a “peak” of 7,500 members of the police forces deployed this Friday for the opening match between the XV of France and New Zealand in Saint-Denis.
The same blue “poultice”, XXL size with 37 units of mobile forces as reinforcements, will be put back in place on the evening of the final to fight against insecurity around the Stade de France, accompany the supporters to the last train and guarantee the smooth running of the fan zones. While anti-drone measures have been taken to avoid any risk of overflights of a site by a device carrying an explosive charge, experts in nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical protection will inspect the sites before each kick-off. Each rugby team is, for its part, protected by the RAID and the GIGN, at their hotel but also to strengthen the escorts.
Gérald Darmanin, who came to unveil the device alongside the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera, is aware that the slightest hitch during the competition would have devastating effects. The Stade de France fiasco, during the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, in Saint-Denis, on May 28, 2022, sounded like a warning shot. Well aware of the need to keep away the thugs of the cities likely to threaten the supporters, the first cop of France delivered a final assessment of the “zero crime” plan aimed at multiplying “erasure operations” of the small and average crime which would risk “rotting” this sports festival. Under the leadership of the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez, around twenty operations are carried out every day in Seine-Saint-Denis, the scene of 3,700 targeted “descents” having given rise to 4,900 arrests of dealers and other street vendors. Now five mobile force units are mobilized in the “9-3” said Gérald Darmanin, promising that this “philosophy of harassment of offenders will continue until the Olympics”. More generally, a new envelope of four million euros has been released to strengthen the video surveillance network, in particular in 29 municipalities, where 550 new cameras will be deployed.
The security exercise is all the more perilous as the police will also have to manage, at the same time, the visit of the Pope to Marseilles on September 22 and 23, as well as that of King Charles from September 20 to 22. september.
Some 160 police and gendarmes from European countries also made the trip to oil cooperation. Welcoming for her part the “mobilization of the police down to the smallest detail”, the Minister of Sports announced that 6,800 volunteers will be there to “help the fluidity of the movement of supporters between stations and stadiums”. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra also announced that 5000 private security agents will also be present in the nine cities hosting the competition. Recalling that 90% of French people support this event, she welcomed the enthusiasm generated by this competition, which is under close surveillance. If Gérald Darmanin has deployed a veritable armada of police and gendarmes, there is no doubt that the blues will be above all on the lawn with an ultra-combative fifteen tricolor.
