“It’s obviously a failure,” said Didier Lallement, mentioning the “jostling or assaulted” people and the “shaken image” of France, before the law commission of the upper house.
“It’s an injury for me,” he added.
The prefect of police said “completely assume” the figure of 30,000 to 40,000 people located in front of the Stade de France without a valid ticket, while stressing that he “never claimed that this figure was perfectly fair”.
This estimate, taken up by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, is disputed by the British, the press and many observers.
Gérald Darmanin explained after the sports meeting that “30,000 to 40,000 English supporters found themselves at the Stade de France, either without a ticket or with falsified tickets”.
If Mr. Lallement admitted that he was “perhaps mistaken” about this figure, which has no “scientific virtue”, he insisted on the fact that these 30,000 to 40,000 people were not at the strict surroundings of the stadium.
“We never counted 30,000 to 40,000 people in front of the stadium gates, we smelled them on the outskirts of our roadblocks, that is to say on the arrivals”, via public transport, he said. noted.
“I never claimed that this figure was a few thousand perfectly fair but it seems to me to totally reflect what the situation was”, added the prefect of police.
Didier Lallement was nevertheless satisfied that “the match is held and above all that there are no serious injuries and no deaths”.
The prefect said his “sincere regrets” to British and Spanish supporters and encouraged them to file a complaint, which has been possible since Monday by downloading a form from the website of the French Embassy in the United Kingdom.
“The internal security forces were not responsible for controlling tickets” at the level of pre-filtering at the exit of public transport, he noted, stressing “the responsibility of the organizer”.
“With the late and massive arrival, this control was embolized” at the exit of the RER D, he continued, while there was a strike on the RER B. He regretted that the prefecture of police did not have “accurate information” about Liverpool supporters.
Regarding the use of tear gas used by the police on the forecourt of the stadium, the prefect repeated twice that it was “the only police means to push back a crowd except to charge it”, which would have been a “serious error”.
He said he was “sorry” for “people of good faith, there are some”, who breathed these gases, but according to him “the doctrine of maintaining order” is not in question. He conceded “a maneuvering problem”.
“The decisions taken” made it possible to preserve “the physical integrity of people and the holding of the match”, he concluded.
