a “significant” drop in damage observed throughout France

The tension was palpable and the violence feared, around the July 14 festivities, after the recent riots at the beginning of the month. However, according to the provisional report of the Ministry of the Interior established at 5:30 a.m., this Saturday July 15, the night from Friday to Saturday was “on the whole calmer than the previous year”.

A total of 255 burned vehicles were recorded, against 423 last year, the ministry said. 96 arrests took place and 7 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured, compared to 21 in 2022. Some “51 uses of fireworks against the police” were recorded, compared to 333 in 2022, also details the ‘institution.

A substantial device

Place Beauvau had already observed a drop in damage during the night of July 13, traditionally also marked by incidents. Like the day before, 45,000 police and gendarmes, including, for the first time on July 14, elite units, were thus mobilized, including nearly 10,000 in the Paris region. A device similar to that deployed during the violence following the death of Nahel, 17, killed by the shooting of a police officer during a road check in Nanterre on June 27. Over the whole weekend, 130,000 members of the police were thus mobilized.

Several municipalities had also decided to give up their fireworks, especially in Île-de-France and in the North. But in Paris, the town hall maintained the party around the Eiffel Tower. Like last year, the secure Champ-de-Mars area could accommodate 70,000 people to attend a major classical concert and then the pyrotechnic show that followed for about twenty minutes, shortly before midnight. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, stressed to AFP the importance “- of these moments of gathering with family or friends”, adding that it was about “the image of France in the world at one year of the Games”.

For his part, in a tweet, published this Saturday, July 15, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, welcomes a controlled night. “Popular festivals, concerts and fireworks were able to take place everywhere in France with a significant drop in damage compared to 2022”, explains the manager.

Popular festivals, concerts and fireworks were able to take place everywhere in France with a significant drop in damage compared to 2022. We owe it to our law enforcement, their presence and the many preventive checks carried out . Thanks to them.

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) July 15, 2023

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