after the clashes in Amsterdam, Bruno Retailleau refuses to relocate the match

FOOTBALL – These are images that continue to get people talking. On the evening of Thursday, November 7, violent clashes took place in Amsterdam, with football supporters of the Israeli club Maccabi Tel-Aviv being attacked by residents of the Dutch capital after increasing their provocations about Gaza and the Palestinian cause. Clashes which worry one week before the holding of a Nations League match between the Blues and Israel at the Stade de France.

In this case, the holding of the meeting has already been agitating the political sphere for months. While several left-wing elected officials, and particularly rebellious ones, have long called for the cancellation of the meeting as a gesture of support for the Palestinians and opposition to Israel's policies, the authorities have chosen to maintain the match. As announced in mid-October by Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez, this will take place on Thursday October 14 at the Stade de France, and not at the Parc des Princes as had once been mentioned, the Parisian enclosure being more easy to secure.

A calendar maintained this Friday, November 8, by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. “ Some are calling for the France-Israel match to be relocated. I don't accept it », writes the tenant of Place Beauvau on X. Which he justifies as follows: “ France is not backing down because that would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism.”

A register on which the Minister of Europe Benjamin Haddad joins him, who also writes on X: “ No weakness, no cowardice in the face of anti-Semitism. » Thus, Bruno Retailleau assures that “ as usual “, the League of Nations meeting next Thursday will take place at the Stade de France, and that to this end he asked the police prefect to ” take the necessary security measures ».

Due to the context in the Middle East, the first leg was relocated to Hungary. This time, the context is even more tense. Due to the clashes in Amsterdam, which sent five people to hospital and led to the arrest of 62 others, according to the latest report from the Dutch police, but also because the authorities fear provocations from the French public. This is evidenced by the virulence of the Minister of the Interior towards the tifo deployed by Paris Saint-Germain supporters during their Champions League match in support of the Palestinian cause. A message that UEFA did not consider necessary to condemn.

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