Tonight’s (Wednesday) World Cup semi-final between France and Morocco will be more than just a soccer match. The country’s authorities are preparing for many fans, French or Moroccan, to celebrate the end of the match on the Champs Elysees in Paris after the match, celebrations that may turn into violent riots and disturbances.
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French Interior Minister Gerard Dramane announced last night that 10,000 police officers will be deployed throughout the country, with 5,000 of them stationed in Paris alone. Dharmana said that there is no intention to close the boulevards, but most of the merchants decided to close their doors early as a precaution. Two hours before the start of the game, checkpoints will be deployed throughout Paris where a search will be conducted, for fear of smuggling fireworks or smoke grenades.
“Our job is not to prevent you from celebrating,” the Minister of the Interior told the fans via the television channels, “it must be done under strict security conditions. We expect that no matter what the weather, people will want to express their joy, and this is indeed a legitimate thing,” he said . The head of the 8th arrondissement of Paris said: “When we want to celebrate the victory, we don’t come with mortars… everyone is afraid and we don’t want the Champs-Élysées to become a battlefield!”
The president of the National Union Party, Jordan Bardela, believes that some Moroccan fans have a “feeling of revenge” against France. “We are paying the price for 30 years of failed immigration policy,” Bardella said in an interview with a local news channel. Similarly, Laurent Jacobelli, a member of the French National Assembly, expressed his sorrow at the sight of “people who hold French citizenship but do not support the French national team”.
The World Cup semi-final between the two teams will be held in the context of diplomatic tensions. Morocco is not satisfied with Macron’s decision to reduce the number of travel visas issued to Moroccan citizens, as well as with the warming of relations between France and Algeria and Western Sahara. France, on the other hand, does not look favorably on Morocco’s economic presence in West Africa. In recent years, there has been a deterioration in diplomatic relations, especially after during 2021, a storm broke out in France following publications that the Moroccan intelligence services tracked the mobile phone of French President Emmanuel Macron.
The fear of riots comes, as mentioned, against the background of the riots that already happened last Saturday after the Moroccan team qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup. During the celebrations in Paris, several fans smashed shop windows. Violent riots have also occurred in recent European cities. In the Netherlands, Moroccan immigrants took to the streets of The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht, obstructing traffic, blocking streets, disrupting public order and confronting the police who tried to disperse them. Similar events were also recorded in Spain and Belgium.
According to estimates, there are close to one and a half million Moroccans living in France, it is the largest community of Moroccans outside of Morocco. The French Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that it is estimated that 755,400 Moroccan citizens live in France and these represent twenty percent of the immigrant population in France. The Moroccan national football team includes in its squad many Moroccan citizen players born in France.