The National Day festivities went mostly smoothly in France, while an “exceptional” security device had been deployed to prevent possible riots.
Despite feared tensions and violence, the festivities of the evening of July 14 took place without tension. Fireworks, concerts and shows enlivened towns all over France to the delight of the French.
In order to avoid another night of riots, which have already shaken France after the death of Nahel, a security device described as “exceptionalhad been deployed. Indeed, the national holiday is usually an event conducive to excesses and urban violence. According to an initial assessment communicated by the Ministry of the Interior, 96 people were arrested and 255 vehicles were set on fire, compared to 423 last year – a drop of 40%. Seven police officers and firefighters were injured last night, compared to 21 in 2022. And Beauvau also recorded 51 uses of fireworks against the police, compared to 333 last year.
In a tweet, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, welcomed a “significant drop in damage“compared to 2022.”We owe it to our police forces, to their presence and to the many preventive checks carried out“, he added.
Important safety feature
The Minister of the Interior had announced, on July 14, the deployment of 45,000 police and gendarmes per evening, including nearly 10,000 in the Paris region. A total of 130,000 law enforcement personnelspecially equipped and organized» are mobilized during the weekend. Several municipalities had also decided to give up their fireworks, especially in Île-de-France and in the North. But in Paris, the town hall maintained the party around the Eiffel Tower.
On the lookout, the police have multiplied the seizures of pyrotechnic articles sent to France from the Czech Republic or Poland, via Germany. Following the exploitation of information, no less than 1.5 tons of these fireworks were intercepted between July 5 and July 7 throughout the Paris metropolitan area. As of last Sunday, the executive had published a decree which prohibits, until July 15 inclusive, the “sale“, THE “port” and the “transport of fireworks mortarsfrequently used by the perpetrators of this violence.
Fireworks with ultramarine airs
On the side of those who took advantage of the festivities, the atmosphere was carefree. In Paris, after the traditional military parade on the Champs-Élysées, a crowd of tourists and Parisians gathered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower to admire the fireworks, one year before the Olympic Games. According to the town hall of Paris, like last year, the secure area of the Champ-de-Mars could accommodate 70,000 people to attend a large classical concert and then the pyrotechnic show that followed for about twenty minutes, shortly before midnight.
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The fireworks, placed under the theme of the Overseas Territories, flourished to the sound of overseas music this year, contemplated by a dense crowd in front of the Iron Lady but also from further afield, such as in the Tuileries Gardens or from the bridges over the Seine.
A crowd of tourists and Parisians gathered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower to admire the fireworks. PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS
Mayor Anne Hidalgo stressed to AFP the importance “of these moments of gathering with family or friends“, adding that it was about”the image of France in the world one year before the Games“. At 5 p.m., national and municipal police and private security employees opened the entrances and tried to relieve the spectators of the bottles of alcohol hidden in the bags. The night then passed without incident.
Rare incidents
However, a few incidents occurred on the sidelines of the festivities in Nice and Cannes in the Alpes-Maritimes. Black beaches of worlds to watch the fireworks, crowded terraces, the national holiday broke audience records in the first part of the evening, reports Nice morning . As the night progressed, a few incidents occurred in the so-called sensitive neighborhoods.
In Cannes, the police chased individuals armed with fireworks as far as the Croisette. North of the city of cinema, in Le Cannet, the firefighters had to intervene for the start of a rubbish fire. In Nice, in the Moulins district, two cars went up in smoke shortly before midnight.