Darmanin apologizes three years after the fiasco of the Stade de France – Liberation

It took three years And a change of ministry to Gérald Darmanin to beat his coulpe. The former interior minister who has become a guard of the Seals accused, who has so far accused English supporters Chaotic events that have occurred on the sidelines of The Liverpool-Real Madrid Champions League final at the Stade de France, was « excuse » This Monday, May 5 for the first time.

« We were mistaken about the device » police supervision From this meeting, recognized in an interview broadcast on the Legend Youtube channel. “We expected a Hooligan war, and in fact we had people who came to make rackets. So the addition of bullshit (…) makes me, when I make my first public outing, I say what I saw and what I was told: “The English fuck the brothel.» (…) It was not true in the literal sense of the term ”, concedes the Keeper of the Seals. “It was a failure because I had not planned well, and I sinned by received idea. The culprit was easy ”, also recognizes Gérald Darmanin.

Initially planned in Saint Petersburg, The final won by Real Madrid (1-0) was finally organized on May 28, 2022 in Saint-Denis After the Russian invasion of Ukraine a few months earlier.

The meeting had notably been delayed by thirty-seven minutes, the supporters having trouble accessing the enclosure after being channeled in overloaded bottlenecks. Police had pulled grenades from tear gas towards thousands of English supporters trapped behind metal barriers. The latter had to respond to a series of unjust accusations following this chaos.

UEFA, The ruling body of European football, first tried to reject the fault of the supporters who arrived late, while thousands of them had been retained for hours outside the stadium. French authorities also said thata « Fraud on an industrial scale » False tickets was at the origin of the problem. In 2023, the Bobigny prosecutor’s office estimated « At least 5,000 », Out of 79,000 places at the Stade de France, the potential fraud on tickets that evening. The latter accusation of the authorities, deemed to be false, was very poorly perceived in the United Kingdom.

An investigation by the Senate concluded thata poorly designed security device was at the origin of the mess. On which an independent report said that the UEFA bore the « Main responsibility » failures that almost transformed the match into « Mortal disaster ».

Many supporters, including children, had expressed their trauma after this event, whose outcome could have been tragic. For many of them, these chaos scenes had recalled the terrible stampede of the Hillsborough stadium in 1989, which had resulted in the death of 97 of them. At least 80 complaints from English and Spanish supporters for theft and violence had been filed after the event.

Seized by Liverpool supporters, The rights defender, Claire Hédon, had estimated in July 2024 that the use of « Lapid means » For « Preventing intrusion attempts in the stadium » was not « Not absolutely necessary, nor adapted to the circumstances and endangered the people legitimately present to attend the match, who were in the majority ».

Regarding « Associations suffered by supporters around the stadium », the rights defender had estimated that « The police have failed in their mission to protect people and property ».

The UEFA announced in March 2024 to have concluded an agreement with the Liverpool supporters, who claimed compensation, for the physical and mental injuries caused by the incidents of the Stade de France. « What I don’t know that evening is that most of the difficulty does not come from English supporters (…) but offenders from Seine-Saint-Denis », said Gérald Darmanin on Monday.