The soap opera continues. Four days after the incidents at the Stade de France on the sidelines of the Champions League final, Gérald Darmanin (pictured above), the French Minister of the Interior, and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, were questioned on Wednesday 1 June by the Senate’s Law Commission. “It is obvious that things could have been better organised, acknowledged the first of the two government members. It’s obvious that this sports festival has been spoiled. And we very sincerely regret the sometimes unacceptable excesses that took place. This is the event that has mobilised the most police and gendarmes since I became Minister of the Interior. There were more than enough police officers.” More measured than in his first statements, Gérald Darmanin assured that “several tickets were duplicated hundreds of times“. One of them had even been duplicated 744 times. The Minister of the Interior also stated before the Senate that “110,000 people” turned up “in and around the Stade de France“. Finally, he announced that British and Spanish citizens who were attacked after the match “will be able to lodge a complaint in their own country from Monday“, and also to refer the matter to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN).
