The senators continue their marathon in the search for responsibilities after the incidents which occurred on Saturday May 28 at the Stade de France (Seine-Saint-Denis) on the sidelines of the final of the Champions League football between Real Madrid and Liverpool FC.
After the hearing, Thursday, June 16 in the morning, of Michel Cadot – the interministerial delegate for major sporting events and the Olympic Games (JO) –, a delegation of elected senators led by the president of the culture committee Laurent Lafon (centrist, Val-de-Marne) and by that of the law commission François-Noël Buffet (Les Républicains, Rhône) went to the security PC of the Stade de France then to the forecourt of the enclosure of Saint-Denis where scenes of chaos had erupted on May 28.
At the end of their visit under a crushing sun, the senators made a point of delivering “early lessons” drawn from more than two weeks of hearings – in particular those of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on 1er June, and the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, on June 9.
“The dysfunctions are numerous, the facts of May 28 are of a rare gravity whose consequences could have been dramatic”, lashed Laurent Lafon in the preamble, describing, on behalf of the organizers, “a lack of preparation upstream, a lack of responsiveness during the event” and “questionable management afterwards”.
Lack of reaction from the police
The senators say they based their work on the report submitted Friday, June 10 to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, by Michel Cadot, instructed by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra to shed light on the incidents of May 28 within ten days. “Some dysfunctions were noted by Mr. Cadot, others not at all. »
In the document, the interministerial delegate for major sporting events and the Olympic Games established, without determining who is guilty, the list of responsibilities of each of the organizers – French Football Federation (FFF), Paris Police Prefecture, RATP and SNCF – in the malfunctions observed. Three of them particularly caught the attention of the elected officials of the High Assembly: the bad orientation of the flow of supporters, the failing management of delinquency around the Stade de France and the non-conservation of video surveillance images of the sports enclosure.
The senators particularly criticized the withdrawal, by the prefect of police, of the signage indicating, at the exit of the RER D, a relief route to the RER B, more suitable for getting to the stadium. Why hadn’t it been reinstalled? Didier Lallement did not explain this during his hearing at the Luxembourg Palace; the device would not have proven itself in the Coupe de France final three weeks earlier. On May 28, up to 15,000 British supporters had massed in a bottleneck near the Stade de France before the lifting of the pre-filtering hastily ordered by the prefect of police. “This is the most important dysfunction”accuses François-Noël Buffet, according to whom “flows would have been much smoother” with the provided load shedding panels.
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