“Could the Stade de France have been better managed? The answer is yes. Do I have some responsibility? The answer is yes.” It took a month for Gérald Darmanin to finally admit having failed in the security fiasco of the Champions League final. The Minister of the Interior took advantage of his appearance on RTL on Tuesday morning to reiterate his apologies to Liverpool supporters, sprayed with tear gas by the police or attacked and robbed – just like Real Madrid supporters – at the end of the game on May 28. He had initially accused the fans of the “Reds” who had come “without ticket or with counterfeit tickets” of being the cause of the delay in kicking off the final.
“I apologize very willingly (to) all those who suffered this mismanagement”, said Gérald Darmanin in the direction of the supporters. It is a mea culpa on the face of it, however, since when he goes into detail about what did not work that evening of May 28, the Minister of the Interior does not mention the poor management of the flow of supporters from the RER and metro stations to the area around the stadium. “If there is something that went wrong at the Stade de France, it is the fight against delinquency”he preferred to insist.
“It is certain that we have a change of organization to make”
Gérald Darmanin was also pleased that the last three sporting meetings organized in the enclosure – including the final of the Top 14 on Friday – had not been the subject “of no difficulty”even if these smaller meetings were unlikely to cause any excesses.
“I have taken measures which have profoundly changed (the organization of) the Prefecture of Police around the Stade de France”said Gérald Darmanin, stressing that he had “doubled the means that were probably missing (to) fight” against crime.
Asked about the responsibility of the prefect of police Didier Lallement, announced on the departure during the summer, Gérald Darmanin remained very evasive. He first said don’t “never do ad hominem punishment but maybe in the secrecy of my office there are changes”. Before cutting short:The question of the people will come later, the prefect of police did his job that evening, but it is certain that we have a change of organization to make, that does not obviously mean that we have to leave it behind. take from such and such a person.”