France on Thursday faced the first major security challenge of Euro 2016 with a giant concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where visitors were greeted by piles of uncollected rubbish.
Superstar French DJ David Guetta will perform in the 90,000-capacity fan zone, the day before hosts France take on Romania in the opening match at the capital’s Stade de France.
The concert will be the first test of the massive security operation to guard the tournament just seven months after a series of coordinated jihadist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
France has mustered up to 90,000 police and private guards to provide security for the month-long tournament.
But the start of Europe’s four-yearly football extravaganza looks set to be blighted by continuing strikes over the government’s controversial labour reforms.
A train strike rumbled into its ninth day, and as hundreds of thousands of fans began arriving for the football, bags of household rubbish were piling up on the streets of Paris as temperatures rose to 24 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit).
Union blockades of incineration plants were preventing collections in a dispute that escalated this week.
Paris authorities said nearly a third of rubbish truck drivers were on strike and nearly 3,000 tonnes of waste were uncollected.
“The situation has worsened since yesterday,” one of Paris’ deputy mayors, Bruno Julliard, admitted.
Zahier, a waiter in a restaurant in the Latin Quarter where rubbish spilled out of bins into the narrow, cobbled streets, said: “Customers are looking out at the dustbins, so obviously it’s making them lose their appetite.”
Unsightly mounds of waste were also building up in the southern city of Marseille, which will host four Euro 2016 matches, including England’s high-profile clash with Russia on Saturday.
– ‘Pride at stake’ –
Environment Minister Segolene Royal appealed to unions to end their disruption, warning they were endangering the image of France, which is bidding to host the 2024 Olympics.
“People want things to return to normal, for the mess to end,” Royal told iTele, saying it was “not right for a modern country to continue being permanently disrupted”.
“France’s pride is at stake,” Royal said. “Let’s not harm France’s capacity to organise global events,” she added.
In another headache for organisers, Air France pilots have called for a four-day strike starting on Saturday, when an estimated two million foreign fans will begin arriving in earnest.
The latest round of negotiations broke down on Thursday.
Air France chief executive Frederic Gagey promised however that between 70 percent and 80 percent of flights would operate on Saturday.
The situation is reminiscent of 1998, when Air France pilots grounded planes for 10 days ahead of the football World Cup hosted by France. A last-minute solution was only found to that dispute on the day the tournament began.
President Francois Hollande has refused to back down on the unions’ demands to withdraw the labour reforms, arguing the measures are necessary to cut stubbornly high unemployment and make it easier for companies to take on staff or fire workers in a downturn.
‘Refuse to think of risk’
As the France team arrived in Paris from their training base, authorities were taking no chances.
France remains a top target for the Islamic State (IS) group and warnings from the United States and Britain that the tournament could be a target have only added to the sense of nervousness.
All eyes on Thursday evening will be on the fan zone at the Champ de Mars in Paris where Guetta will head a star-studded lineup, under heavy security.
From there the focus will shift to the Stade de France, where three Islamic State members blew themselves up in the November 13 carnage, which also targeted a concert hall and several cafes and restaurants.
The stadium in the gritty suburb of Saint-Denis will host Friday’s opening match and the final will also be played there on July 10.
Among a host of extra security measures, a new perimeter fence has been added around the venue for Euro 2016 to allow more security searches of spectators.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed Wednesday that 300 people had been barred from serving in the private security teams after vetting showed they had been radicalised.
The arrest of a Frenchman with alleged far-right sympathies in possession of an arsenal of weapons in Ukraine on Monday caused new jitters.
Ukraine said the 25-year-old, identified in France as Gregoire Moutaux, was planning to attack locations including mosques and synagogues before and during the tournament.
Germany defender Jerome Boateng, who was playing on the night the Stade de France was targeted in November, has said he has banned his family from attending games because he was concerned for their safety.
The French government has launched a free smartphone app in French and English, called SAIP, that will warn users of any “major crisis”, including suspected attacks.
Source: AFP
