Slowly but surely, the noose is tightening on those responsible for the fiasco of May 28, during the Champions League final Liverpool – Real Madrid at the Stade de France. A good indicator: usually civilized, the senators who work on the subject now have the verb higher and higher. “Numerous malfunctions”, “serious misconduct”, “Lack of preparation upstream, lack of responsiveness during” “incomprehensible, unthinkable, inadmissible”… The presidents of the Senate’s law and culture committees, François-Noël Buffet and Laurent Lafon, do not did not go there with a dead hand.
This Thursday, these elected officials and their colleagues were at the Stade de France for a visit, after having heard in the morning the prefect delegate for major sporting events, Michel Cadot. And they will continue their work next week by hearing in particular representatives of English and Spanish supporters. They also hope to hear from UEFA, and are still waiting for the videos that the police headquarters has at its disposal.
After retracing the thread of events, they came to the following conclusion: “All the actors who, at one time or another, have failed (transport, police, justice, etc.) depend on the State. The link with the state is obvious. However, the gravity of the events calls on the State to respond. On the measures to be taken, and on the responsibilities”, asserts Laurent Lafon.
Clearly, we must designate those responsible for this chaos. “Otherwise, we have the impression that there are no responsible parties, therefore no culprits. We need a clear responsibility, it is an essential element for understanding by the French and international public opinion, “said the senator.
The prefect Lallement in the viewfinder
In their sights in particular, the prefect of police Didier Lallement. The responsibility of the prefecture is particularly clearly pinpointed on at least two essential points. First of all, “the management of delinquency put under the carpet when we knew since the beginning of the afternoon”, tackle François-Noël Buffet. “The police headquarters has clearly said that its doctrinal choice was first and foremost to manage the flow of supporters, and not public security and therefore crime. However, the acts of delinquency began at noon and continued until the end, without any reaction from the police. It is a choice assumed by the prefecture, we cannot consider that it is the right one”.
Then, the now sadly famous congestion of access to the stadium on the RER D side, “with extremely serious consequences”, recalls Laurent Lafon. The French Football Federation had recommended redirecting the flows to the RER B. “The FFF was able to install a staking to guide the crowd, and, at the request of the prefecture, this was not done”, says Lafon again. His colleague Bonnet drives the point home: “the prefecture has asked for the staking to be abolished. This is probably the biggest malfunction. It is the generative fact”. And not the counterfeit notes mentioned by the government and the prefect in their hearings.
The videos of the prefecture still awaited
Also targeted, “the incomprehensible” lack of requisition of Stade de France videos. The senators, who visited the Stade de France security post, confirmed that a large number of representatives of the public authorities were present in this post on the evening of the final, and saw the images of the chaos. In particular a judicial police officer and a magistrate from the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, who had the power to request the preservation of the images.
“I cannot say that it is a deliberate desire to conceal, because I would have to prove it, specifies François-Noël Bonnet. But we can say that it is incomprehensible, unthinkable and even inadmissible that no one present that evening asked to keep these images”. Those of the Stade, the SNCF and the RATP have therefore disappeared, but not that of the police headquarters. On this level too, the senators are waiting for the return of the images. Just as they hope for a government response to the Cadot report, which named the first responsible. “We must not let rot a certain number of subjects”, reprimand the senators. Prefect Lallement is warned.
