The Insoumis MP Louis Boyard asked on Friday for the cancellation of the France-Israel football match scheduled for November 14 at the Stade de France, but the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau said he made its good performance “a question of principle”. while opening the door to a reduction in the gauge.
“I want this match not to take place,” declared on Sud Radio Mr. Boyard, who is relaying a petition asking for the cancellation of this League of Nations meeting.
While the war that has raged since the pogrom perpetrated by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023 in the Gaza Strip has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out massive airstrikes against the group since September 23. Islamist terrorist from Hezbollah, Mr. Boyard invoked “article 4 of the FIFA statutes which explains that universal human rights must be respected”.
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The rebellious MP argued that the International Federation had “sometimes applied sanctions to other countries”, such as Russia, Belarus or South Africa. “But on the other hand, when it comes to the policy of the Israeli government, we do absolutely nothing,” he denounced, asking “that we put an end to double standards”, in the name notably the “42,000 deaths” (43,204 to date, editor’s note) recorded by Hamas in Gaza.
This toll, which cannot be verified and which does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians, includes the approximately 17,000 terrorists that Israel claims to have killed in combat and the civilians killed by the hundreds of rockets fired by the terrorist groups which fell inside the Gaza Strip.
But, for the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, interviewed on BFMTV-RMC, the meeting will be held in Saint-Denis, “and we will of course adapt the security system”.
New French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau attending the 130th National Congress of French Firefighters, at the Macon Exhibition Center, in east-central France, on September 28, 2024. (Credit: Alex Martin/AFP )
Police prefect Laurent Nuñez had promised two weeks ago “an extremely reinforced security system which will be of a very high level”, both “outside and inside the stadium”.
In this context, could the gauge of 80,000 spectators be revised downwards?
“This is a point that we are currently studying,” admitted Mr. Retailleau. “But what I wanted is for us not to move, for example to the Parc des Princes” – in the 16th arrondissement of Paris – which has 48,000 places, he continued.
Because, castigating LFI, which according to him seeks to “import the conflicts of the Middle East into our neighborhoods and into France”, Mr. Retailleau assured that the smooth running of this meeting was “a question of principle”.
“We are in France and we must be able to enforce public order,” he insisted.
The environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau was circumspect about the initiative of her colleague from the New Popular Front: “Really, I don’t think it’s a football match and I don’t get into that.” she evaded on France 2.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this article.
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