2023-10-18 19:34:42
2023 Rugby World Cup in FrancedossierIn a note addressed to the prefects on Wednesday October 18, the Minister of the Interior asks to increase the level of security in the fan zones and around the Stade de France, which must still accommodate spectators until at the end of the event, October 28.
The Rugby World Cup is not immune to the security tightening. In a telegram sent this Wednesday to the prefects, Gérald Darmanin explains that “the increase in the threat weighing on the national territory, materialized by the passage to the “emergency attack” vigilance level and by the activation of specific Vigipirate measures, requires vigilance particular on the monitoring and celebration sites linked to the World Cup. In this case, fan zones and rugby villages set up throughout the territory.
The circular is not a surprise, after the government raised the level of vigilance a notch to that of “Emergency attack” following the death on October 13 of Dominique Bernard, this French teacher murdered with the help of a knife on Friday in Arras by a former student of his high school accused of Islamist radicalization, and in the flammable context of war between Hamas and Israel. For the executive, an end to the World Cup without the slightest blunder is essential, with the Paris Olympics on the horizon in a few months. The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, is expected in person in Saint-Denis for the final on October 28.
Minesweeper/dog crew pair
This enhancement of the security of the World Cup sites aims, according to Gérald Darmanin, “the prevention of acts of terrorism, but also the continuity of activity and the preservation of the popularity of the event despite the international context and national. In the note, the minister insists: “If the next matches will take place exclusively at the Stade de France, a maximum security system must be put in place for all associated events.”
For rugby villages, he calls for a “very broad mobilization of internal security forces to secure transport both in Île-de-France and in all the territories welcoming them”, without specifying whether the numbers would be reinforced. At most, we know that on each site, there must be “an intervention column of specialized forces and a mine clearance/dog crew pair”. On the other fan zones, if new ones were to be created (we doubt it since the XV of France is eliminated), the minister asks to favor closed places (sports grounds, municipal halls, etc.), with reinforced controls.
At the time of the opening of the World Cup, at the beginning of September, Gérald Darmanin spoke of a “maximum level” of security thanks to an “unprecedented” mobilization of the security apparatus for a sporting event of this caliber. Concretely, between “5,100” police officers and gendarmes are deployed for match days and up to “7,500 personnel” during high-stakes matches, around the Stade de France and in transport during the final.
Until now, security measures for stadiums and other sites had been established and implemented “in accordance with the Vigipirate plan at the “Enhanced security – risk of attack” level”, the organizers explain to Libération. In this case, it is a question of submitting to two successive checks (visual inspection of coats and bags, then pat-down) any holder of an access document (accreditation or ticket) to a stadium. A system in force since 2015 in France.
On the private security side, 5,000 to 6,000 security guards are on deck, according to Jacques Rivoal, president of the World Cup organizing committee. The Organizing Committee has given “directives to the private security companies it employs to constantly comply with the most rigorous standards in terms of control”, assures France 2023.
The authorities can also rely on the Olympic intelligence center, created for the next Olympics. Without forgetting the cyber threat, while “the surface area of exposure” of the World Cup and the Olympics “to computer attacks remains very significant”, as recently recalled by the National Agency for Information Systems Security (Anssi ).
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