Maximum mobilization. Some 90,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilized in France, including 5,400 in Paris, for New Year’s Eve, after two years of restrictions due to Covid-19, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and the prefecture said on Friday. of Paris police.
The “high and persistent level of terrorist threat” and the “recent events in Paris against the Kurdish community” must “lead to the greatest vigilance”, writes Minister Gérald Darmanin in a note addressed to the prefects.
The Minister of the Interior asks the prefects to provide a “deterrent device, visible and on foot”, associating law enforcement and soldiers from Operation Sentinel. Public transport will be particularly monitored, adds the minister, and filtering points to access places of gatherings with searches and pat-downs may be set up.
“Systematic arrest of troublemakers”
On the urban violence component, usually more frequent on the night of December 31, Gérald Darmanin calls for “the systematic arrest of troublemakers”. It also calls for operations to be carried out against driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, starting on the night of December 30.
In Paris, where the traditional fireworks at midnight are back on the Champs-Élysées, 5,400 police and gendarmes will be mobilized, for its part indicated the police headquarters. The device will be particularly reinforced on the famous avenue, where the town hall of Paris expects 500,000 people.
In 2021, 95,000 police and gendarmes, including 9,000 in Paris, were mobilized for New Year’s Eve, in particular to enforce the ban on spontaneous gatherings in the context of an outbreak of Covid-19 cases.