Will go down, won’t go down? Less than 24 hours before the kick-off of the Coupe de France final, uncertainty remains as to the possible entry of Emmanuel Macron on the lawn of the Stade de France. A priori, however, there is no doubt about his presence in the enclosure. “It is obviously not envisaged that he will not attend, confides to us a member of the entourage of the President of the Republic. He’s been there ever since 2017.” “He also really wants to go and greet the players, it’s not in his nature to back down, he continues. But the decision has not yet been made”.
Shaking hands with the protagonists of the evening before the start of the meeting, from athletes to officials and referees, is indeed the custom in Saint-Denis. But breaking the rule would not be a first. In 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy, then in the midst of a “red caps” crisis, had been announced absent for a time, before appearing at the last minute in Saint-Denis, without going through the lawn box.
It is in an even more burning context that the executive is preparing for this evening. While the movements of members of the government have become more than thorny in recent weeks, disturbed at least by concerts of saucepans, the inter-union of Seine-Saint-Denis has indeed initiated a new action against the pension reform. 30,000 red cards and 10,000 whistles must be distributed at the line 13 metro exits, and at the RER B and D metro stops leading supporters to the Stade de France.
A gathering banned by the police headquarters
A mobilization taken very seriously by the authorities, so much so that the Paris police headquarters announced this Friday evening the ban on the static rally announced by the unions, which was to be held from 5 p.m. A decision justified by the non-respect of the deadlines for declaring a rally (three clear days), the possible disruption of a sports event (whistle being prohibited in sports arenas so as not to disturb the refereeing), the wish to avoid the politicization of the sporting event, and finally the “serious risk” of violence due to the concentration of population around the stadium.
In the process, the intersyndicale announced the filing of a summary freedom procedure with the administrative court, castigating “a decision as ridiculous as it is serious”. “But we are only half surprised by this ban which, in addition, comes late this Friday evening, explains Reza Painchon, general secretary of Force Ouvrière 93. But we cannot be prevented from towing and distributing our red cards “, he insists. About fifty members of his section will be mobilized from 5 p.m., alongside the other unions.
As announced on Wednesday in “Le Parisien”, 3,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed around the Stade de France, with a search which, in fact, will focus particularly on whistles. The prefecture indicates that 1,400 security officers will also be mobilized as part of this control and security system.
Within the executive, we fear that the scenario of the last match of the French team against the Netherlands will be repeated. Whistles in the 49.3rd minute and “Macron resignation” had been intoned by the supporters. Dreading such a spectacle, the Head of State had also canceled his visit to the Stadium. “For him, there are no good solutions, recognizes a ministerial adviser. Either he goes down on the lawn and he gets hissed, or he doesn’t go and everyone will say that he is afraid to face the whistles”.
The trophy award ceremony organized in the grandstand
Some of his supporters are more confident on the eve of the event. “For ten days, the president has been on the offensive in the field and you think he will play defense on Saturday evening? It’s hard to know him, ”says Karl Olive, Renaissance deputy for Yvelines. Finally, a time in suspense, the question of the presentation of the trophy, where, tradition obliges, the head of state must also present himself, was decided this Friday evening.
It will be held in the stands and not on the lawn, as was the case during the previous edition. In a press release, the police prefecture indicated that it had “imposed this decision on the FFF, for security reasons, in particular in view of the invasion of the pitch and the incidents that followed at the end of the half-match. final between FC Nantes and Olympique Lyonnais”. Tensions which also justify, according to the police headquarters, the decision to install grids in the bends of the stadium.
Whatever happens, the meeting, which, according to our information, will also attend Brigitte Macron and Didier Deschamps, will be particularly scrutinized. In addition to the 80,000 spectators present in the stadium, the match will be broadcast unencrypted on France 2 from 8:45 p.m., and should be watched by several million French people, as was the case in 2022, with a peak audience at peaked at 4.7 million viewers. A meeting, bringing together in particular Laurent-Éric Le Lay, head of sports at France Télévisions, was held this Friday afternoon, in order to decide on the implementation mechanism concerning the risks linked to the presence of Emmanuel Macron.
According to our information, the idea of attenuating certain aspects in terms of sound and image has been considered for a time, so that events do not take precedence over the match, but it will be difficult to hide what it happens in the stands. “It’s a fact of the day, there is no reason to hide it”, continues a source inside the group. Finally, as for the rendering on the air, no particular instructions, “except that of remaining factual”, would have been advanced.
