The French government has mobilized 130,000 police and gendarmes, as well as 40,000 firefighters, fearing a new outbreak of street violence on the occasion of Bastille Day -a national holiday-, which is celebrated tomorrow, Friday.
The seriousness of the recent riots after the death of a 17-year-old teenager, Nahel, in Nanterre -on the western outskirts of Paris- by a shot by the police during a control requires extreme security measures.
The information services of the Ministry of the Interior have worrying data. There is the possibility that the traditional launch of fireworks – this Thursday and tomorrow Friday – will be used by some groups of youth from the suburbs to attack the police, police stations and other public facilities, and also to burn vehicles, something that happens systematically, as a vandal tradition, on all July 14 and also on New Year’s Eve.
The use of fireworks and firecrackers has been prohibited this year for individuals. Only professionals who organize fireworks shows for town halls have permission. Some of them, including Nanterre, have resigned this year.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has finally decided not to grant an interview on the occasion of the national holiday or make a speech to the country. Yes he delivered the obligatory speech to the armed forces. The original plan existed for him to speak to the nation, via a televised interview, because it coincided with the end of the period of one hundred days “of appeasement” that Macron himself had planned after the protests over the pension reform. The wave of disorders after Nahel’s death forced the head of state to change his plans. The Élysée considered that the tension is still too high for the president to speak without unintended consequences.
In addition to the artifice games, the highlight of Bastille Day is the military parade on the Champs-Elysees, an occasion for France to show the world the potential of its armed forces, which includes nuclear deterrence. The most relevant foreign guest this year is the Indian Prime Minister, Norendra Modi. The new mayor of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, will also attend the parade, invited by his Parisian counterpart, the socialist Anne Hidalgo.
