2023-04-29 11:18:51
It may be difficult to bring pans into the Stade de France enclosure on Saturday April 29 for the final of the Coupe de France football match between FC Nantes and Toulouse FC. Even a simple whistle, an object just as much prohibited in the stands, officially so as not to disturb the refereeing. The gathering of the Seine-Saint-Denis inter-union, which had planned to distribute them to spectators around the stadium, was in any case banned.
But that should not discourage some football fans from expressing their vocal opposition to pension reform or, simply, their dissatisfaction with Emmanuel Macron. Like his predecessors, the Head of State will indeed attend a match which regularly serves as a sounding board for the tensions crossing the country. Moreover, in order not to expose himself too much to the bronca who risk targeting him even without the union whistles, he should not go down on the lawn to be introduced to the players before kick-off.
Nicolas Sarkozy booed in 2012
The current host of the Élysée would thus imitate Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande who had renounced this protocol in order to avoid the sound signs of hostility accompanying almost all their official outings. This discretion did not protect Nicolas Sarkozy from boos from part of the public when the trophy was presented to the winners during his last Coupe de France final in the presidential costume, on April 28, 2012.
The Lyon-Quevilly match was played between the two rounds of the presidential election, in the presence of the other candidate still in the running, François Hollande, supporter of the club in the suburbs of Rouen, his hometown. The atmosphere was icy between the two men. “I will be there as president, he will be there as a spectator “, had slipped on the airwaves of RTL, the day before, the leader of the right. “I say that without arrogance”he added.
La Marseillaise booed in 2002
Ten years ago, other whistles marked the history of the competition. In 2002, during the final between Lorient and Bastia, they pushed Jacques Chirac, then freshly re-elected for a second term, to leave his place and disappear, looking angry. Part of the Corsican public had displayed their nationalist convictions by covering The Marseillaise by boos whose sound level had not escaped anyone.
The scene had ulcerated the President of the Republic. “It is unacceptable and inadmissible”, he said, live in a hallway of the stadium, in front of a television camera. The start of the final was delayed, the players returned to the locker room and it took a public apology from the boss of the French Football Federation, Claude Simonet, for the match to start. Meanwhile, Jacques Chirac had resumed his place. But he had refused to go and greet the footballers on the lawn.
François Mitterrand facing the steelworkers in 1984
Before him, other presidents may have suffered stormy reactions from the stands in the final of the Coupe de France. The practice was not as systematic as today, but it happened to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing as well as to François Mitterrand at the Parc des Princes, the stadium which then served as the setting for this sporting summit. In 1984, the socialist also saw supporters of FC Metz brandish banners in favor of the steelworkers, when his government had just launched a second Steel Plan resulting in the unemployment of thousands of workers.
But François Mitterrand will remain in the annals of the event for more unusual episodes. He is the president embraced by Jean-Pierre Papin, captain of Olympique de Marseille, when the cup was awarded in 1989. Or the one who cohabited in the stands with his successor not yet officially inducted, Jacques Chirac, in 1995 .
In 1967, Charles de Gaulle, he was applauded for having returned with both hands the ball sent out of the field by a Lyon player. His neighbors then heard him say: “I really have to do everything myself in this country.”
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