There are few places more magical than Paris in winter.
The Christmas market and skating rink draw crowds, while the crepe stand feels like warm hugs to the tongue. The festive season of the city of love is always lucrative when millions of visitors from all over the world flock to the French capital.
However, this year, the World Cup 2022 interrupted the normally scheduled program. Like France prepare to fight Morocco in the second semi-final of the tournament, central Paris is preparing to knock down the hatches.
The French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, has announced that the city will mobilize 10,000 police – half of them dedicated to guarding the Champs Elysees, in what his ministry calls crowd control operations. and prevent terrorism.
The drastic measures are expected following the incidents that followed Morocco’s historic win over Portugal in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
In many big cities around the worldspontaneous celebrations broke out in goodwill fun.
Moroccan rapper French Montana led an impromptu party in the heart of New York’s Times Square. Montreal’s North African district along Jean-Talon Street is filled with Moroccan flags, emerald smoke bombs, music and dancing. As has become a habit, Souq Waqif by Doha is where fans end their World Cup evening before calling it a night.
However, the celebration of the Parisians is ugly. Heavily armed police officers clashed with some of the 20,000 supporters gathered along the Champs Elysees. According to the French Interior Ministry, tear gas was deployed and around 100 people were arrested on various charges.
In France, this has become an unwelcome tradition whenever a North African national football team plays an important match in a notable international tournament, prompting many questions about reason for the difference between the tension felt in Paris and other Western European cities, and elsewhere.
Mahfoud Amara, a professor at Qatar University and author of Sports, Politics and Society in the Arab World, blames the government’s strong hand on the cause.
“Security apparatuses in countries like France and Belgium react to supporters from the Maghreb [western North Africa] celebrate a football match as if it were a security threat,” Amara told Al Jazeera. “They assume that large numbers will automatically turn into trouble. Therefore, they need to be controlled and kept away from city centers. That limited instinct to celebrate can quickly become tense.”
‘Racism’
Sarah, a French-Moroccan visual artist who did not wish to reveal her real name, attended the celebrations in central Paris, which was rapidly degenerating.
“Initially, there was a warm, fun atmosphere,” she recounts.
“Everybody is very excited. Of course, there are a lot of young people, but also families and children. I was there alone with my camera, but never feared for my safety. Then the police blocked a road and sprayed us with gas. A woman falls and people are helping her up. It was chaos.”
Ahead of the match, the Paris District Police said they were “implementing security arrangements to combat crime and ensure the security of people and property in Paris”.
However, Sarah noted that she doesn’t recall witnessing any skirmishes where the security presence was weaker after Morocco beat Spain in the World Cup round of 16 a few days earlier.
Earlier this year, French public authorities and especially Darmanin were heavily criticized for their way of managing crowds during the UEFA Champions League final in May between Real Madrid and Liverpool.
The start of the match was postponed for a total of 36 minutes as a large number of fans outside the stadium were unable to enter, although many showed up with tickets in hand at the Stade de France neighborhood in Saint-Germain. Denis, a suburb of Paris.
Soon after, Darmanin asserted that, “between 35,000 and 40,000 fans without tickets or with fake tickets were present around the Stade de France”. That statement was contradicted by many of the journalists in attendance, as well as by fact-checkers.
Despite criticism of the security forces’ approach, Darmanin refused to apologize for anything but “disproportionate use of tear gas” and said “if something goes wrong at the Stade” de France, it’s a fight against illegality.”
That ignored criticism regarding the lack of crowd control to and from public transport stations and the use of pepper spray on fans.
For Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar and doctoral candidate at the University of Toulouse-Capitole, the police structures in place fail to protect the people they have to serve.
“There are many reports of the terrible problem of racial profiling from the French police. For some people in certain demographics, the French police can even be seen as a threat. There was no relationship of trust – that was broken long ago,” Alouane told Al Jazeera.
Across working-class neighborhoods in France, random “quick stop” searches by visible minorities are common. In that sense, the police are often positioned as an adversarial entity for many young French of North African descent.
The French government has previously made several attempts to tackle racism perpetrated by the police, such as setting up a website that allows citizens to be consulted on the subject, but Critics argue that these steps are not effective enough.
Like Sarah, Yassine, a 30-year-old Algerian fan, also made his way to the Champs Elysees, although he was more of a passive observer than a fan. When the atmosphere became tense, he quickly returned home.
“My theory is that there are some supporters who feel fighting the police is like a symbolic act of revenge against the violence in everyday life. Things like police stop identification, feelings of discrimination, popular political discourse against immigrants and Islam, etc,” explains Yassine.
Despite the potential for violence, Sarah still plans to celebrate with her countrymen if Morocco can beat the defending world champions and progress to the World Cup final.
“I plan to go out and I will. I am aware of the risks, but for me, they do not precede the joy of a potential win. I want to continue to witness history and celebrate it with all those who share this pride and joy.”
