It’s a little phrase that set fire to the powder. “The information circulates by email between show producers, is alarmed Benoît Geli, co-founder of Electronic Beaches, a major Cannes electro festival which is held every year at the beginning of August. I read the articles and I was scared. If after the Nice attack, the Covid-19, we have the Olympics… We dare not imagine for a single second that we could be canceled. I find it so crazy. Tuesday, during a hearing by the Culture and Laws Committees of the Senate, Gérald Darmanin explained the security system surrounding the 2024 Olympic Games.
The Minister announced “the postponement or cancellation of all events in France which require mobile force units or which require the very strong presence of a number of police officers” during the Games, in order to concentrate the forces of order on securing the Olympic sites.
“We think of major cultural festivals that take place during the summer, specifies the Minister of the Interior. We think of major sporting events that take place during the summer and which deserve to be postponed, which travel through France by bike for example. Big concerts, a number of big events. We think of the Braderie de Lille for example. It is not a question of banning them but of being able to postpone them in time, in connection with the elected officials. We must not cancel all the events but a certain number of them. »
“A unilateral decision”
“It is the amazement and incomprehension that predominate, chokes the director of the Vieilles Charrues festival Jérôme Tréhorel. It is a unilateral decision of the Ministry of the Interior which was taken without consultation. We do not really know who is concerned because we have no precise information on the period and the geographical area. Because we are in a region in Brittany which will not host Olympic events so we do not really see why we should pay the price. »
And to estimate: “There is a lack of knowledge of the Ministry of the Interior on the security aspect of the festival. We manage almost all security with our own means. The mobile forces do not intervene in the organization of the festival. Depending on the year, there are still between 100 and 200 mobile forces that intervene at the request of the prefect, but that has nothing to do with the arrangements for a concert at the Stade de France or for a football match. »
“Impossible to shift”
“Frankly, I first thought it was a joke, abounds Benoît Geli. I hope this is just an announcement effect. We, festival organizers, have just gone through difficult years. The Olympics should not be an additional crisis. And we can’t postpone like that. There is a kind of consensus by territory, during which everyone has their weekend. If you play the same weekend as another, the competition is very strong, and the thing can become loss-making. Already there, with the Covid, we had had postponements and traffic jams. It had caused us problems of material, human resources. »
“It’s impossible to shift anyway, says Jérôme Tréhorel. A festival is not organized in 15 days. We already have artistic commitments and contracts with suppliers and partners that cannot be canceled just like that. »
No CRS on the beaches
The anger is also spreading to seaside resorts and other seaside towns, since, during this same hearing, the Minister of the Interior indicated that, for the same reasons, “there will be no CRS for beaches this year “. And this, including in Marseille, host city in which CRS were recently deployed to the Calanque de Sormiou to maintain order and deter troublemakers. “I have already informed the town hall of Marseille, affirms the prefect of police of Bouches-du-Rhône Frédérique Camilleri. You know that we have a CRS station in Sormiou. In the summer of 2024, we will not be able to monitor bathing with CRS. But we will find an arrangement with the town hall to ensure the supervision of swimming other than with CRS. »
“The choice to withdraw the CRS from the beaches of Marseille is a mistake, even more so for this city which will host the Olympic Games, plagues the deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of security, Yannick Ohanessian. There is a security issue on the Marseille beaches, which are welcoming more and more tourists, and are dealing with organized petty crime, incivility and everything related to attacks on women. We need national police on our beaches! “Last summer, five CRS were dispatched to Sormiou at the request of the city of Marseille.