Visit of King Charles to Bordeaux, Pope Francis to Marseille, Rugby World Cup, Ligue 1 matches, demonstrations… France is entering a particularly tense and complex week in terms of security, a new important test a few months before the Games Paris Olympics. From Wednesday, which marks the arrival of King Charles III and Queen Camilla for a three-day state visit, the workforce will increase to bring the number of police and gendarmes mobilized to 8,000, we learned on Saturday from police source.
There will be 10,000 on Thursday, then 12,000 on Friday and 30,000 on Saturday, where demonstrations against police violence will take place mainly in Paris but also in other cities in France. Paris will also host the Techno Parade on Saturday for its 25th anniversary while the Marseille Vélodrome will be the location of a mass celebrated by Pope Francis, who will also descend Avenue du Prado in a popemobile.
Saturday, “the most complicated day”
“It is a multiplicity of large-scale events, important protocol events. King Charles is on a state visit, with a very large number of stops and meetings with local residents. This is a very important security issue,” said the police source, recalling the “context of terrorist threat which continues to weigh on our country” even if “our services have not detected any particular threats”.
These visits will take place in the middle of the Rugby World Cup, which requires security forces, in addition to Ligue 1 football matches, including a high-tension match, PSG-OM, on Sunday September 24 at the Parc des Princes. “The most complicated day for us will be Saturday, we are mobilizing over the whole day between 130 and 135 Mobile Force Units (UFM, gendarmerie squadrons and CRS), or a total of 30,000 police officers and gendarmes,” said the police source, adding that France was “not in a complicated social moment”.