Like many leading political figures, the president of the Île-de-France region will attend this meeting, presented as “high risk” by the French authorities.
And one more political leader: Valérie Pécresse will attend the football match between France and Israel at the Stade de France this Thursday, presented as “high risk” by the French authorities against a backdrop of tensions around the war in the Middle East.
The president of the Republicans of the Île-de-France region announced this Wednesday, November 12 on BFMTV-RMC, adding her name to the long list of leading political figures announced for this event. Emmanuel Macron, but also his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy will be present, as will the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau and the Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez.
“Sport must be protected from geopolitics”
“The Republic cannot be intimidated. This is a sporting event. Sport must be protected from geopolitics,” explains Valérie Pécresse. The LR candidate in the last presidential election “says she is upset, shocked, like many French people by the images of this unbridled anti-Semitism which manifested itself in Amsterdam” where supporters of Maccabi Tel-Aviv were chased and beaten on the sidelines of a football match counting for the Europa League.
These attacks, described as anti-Semitic in particular by Israel and the Dutch authorities, left 20 to 30 injured and sparked indignation in many Western capitals. Isolated incidents also broke out before the match, including anti-Arab chants chanted by Maccabi supporters.
Concerning the French team's match on Thursday, counting for the League of Nations, some 4,000 police and gendarmes, as well as 1,600 security agents, will be mobilized.
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