“Concerns persist. » During the May 24 hearing of the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, by the Cultural Affairs Committee, MP Claudia Rouaux (Socialist Party) made a point of recalling that fears have not been lifted as to the means of security available to cultural events during the summer of 2024. And the holding of some of them remains questionable.
The day before, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had just confirmed that there would be 35,000 police and gendarmes mobilized in Paris on July 26, 2024 for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. On a daily basis, the event as a whole (from July 26 to August 8) will mobilize around 30,000 law enforcement personnel and between 17,000 and 22,000 private security agents.
THE “Questions about safety around festivals are not answered by meetings organized in the prefecture”had also deplored, a week earlier, Senator Sylvie Robert (Socialist Party) on the occasion of the presentation of a first progress report of the senatorial mission in charge of monitoring the preparation of the Games. “The meetings are not progressing at the local level on the preparation for the summer of 2024”had addedIt is Senator Sonia de La Provôté (Centrist Union).
“All festivals that require the presence of mobile force units will take place during the summer of 2024”assured M.me Abdul Malak before the deputies, recalling that “adjustments” took place for “twenty to thirty very large festivals which attract such a massive audience that they must be secured by units of the mobile forces”. “We have adjusted the dates of a small number of very large festivals”she added.
No solution for the moment for Lollapalooza
The Minister clarified that“only one case remains during: the Lollapalooza festival”which is usually held at the Longchamp racecourse. “In connection with the mayor of Sceaux, we have proposed that this municipality welcome it, but this solution has not yet succeeded”she explained.
But it is less about the big festivals than about the smaller ones that the concerns of some elected officials are focused on. “Of course, the dates of the larger ones could be moved, but the uncertainty remains for many others, smaller ones, whose organizers are worried about the idea that they cannot take place”argued the deputy (La France insoumise) Alexis Corbière.
This is also what the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) notes, in a report entitled “Crisis in the cultural sector: the urgency to act”, published on May 9. “The risk of lack of human resources could be combined with a risk of insufficient technical equipment”notes the EESC, considering that there are “a major question about the effective holding of all events”.
Outside of demonstrations “in the open air, standing, with a massive audience and whose security requires the presence of mobile force units”, “the dates of all the other festivals will follow the usual procedure, request authorization from the prefecture, and nothing will change”assured M.me Rima Abdul Malak, launching to the deputies: “The summer of 2024 will be as sporting as it is cultural. »