SHARE
COPY LINK

RIOT

Blame game follows PSG fans’ rampage in Paris

Locals, politicians and the management of Paris Saint-Germain have begun pointing fingers after a group of the club’s supporters went on the rampage in the French capital, burning and looting property during a celebration of PSG’s first French league title in 19 years.

Blame game follows PSG fans' rampage in Paris
A Paris police officer oversees the clean-up of a destroyed shopfront on Avenue Kleber, near Trocadero, Paris in the aftermath of rioting by PSG supporters on May 13th. Photo: Le Parisien

Residents and business-owners in the vicinity of Trocadero, close to the Eiffel Tower, were left with a massive clean-up on Tuesday morning, after a group of PSG supporters went on the rampage during a celebration – organized by the club – of the Paris side’s first French title in a generation.

PSG’s management have condemned a small, unrepresentative group of fans, while locals criticized police for their handling of the riot, and opposition politicians called for the resignation of France’s interior minister.

“Today should have been a day of celebration for the city of Paris, for the club, our supporters and partners,” PSG said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The party was spoiled by a few hundred troublemakers who have nothing to do with football and even less with those that fill the Parc des Princes on match days with such passion and enthusiasm and in total security,” the statement continued.

Despite distancing the club from the hard core of “ultras” who appear to have been behind Monday night’s chaos, however, PSG has been banned from holding any more public celebrations.

“The conclusion you can draw is that there won’t be any more events like this in a public place for Paris Saint-Germain,” Paris police commissioner Bernard Boucault announced on Monday.

One woman at the scene of the destruction expressed her disbelief to French daily Le Parisien. “What’s happening? This is shocking. Where am I? What century am I in?”

“The police left! There was a lot of violence, and the police left. Then these youths came, they had projectiles, and they started setting fire to things,” she added.

Another was in no doubt as to the performance of the CRS riot police on Monday evening. “The police presence here was clearly ineffective,” she told Le Parisien.

For at least one opposition politician, the blame lies with Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

Paris deputy for the centre-right UMP, Claude Goasguen accused Valls of “amateurism” and “inertia” and called for his resignation on Monday night.

“The safety of people, supporters, players and journalists was not assured,” he told French TV TF1. Directing his ire at Valls and Boucault, Goasguen claimed their preparation for Monday evening’s event had been severely lacking.

“It wasn’t complicated to see by the afternoon that there were gangs arriving to riot,” said Goasguen, who is also deputy mayor of the 16th arrondissement.

Valls himself laid the blame elsewhere.

"On this evidence football is still sick," he said. "This is the case for PSG".

The minister said he would be meeting with PSG chiefs in the coming days to review the violence.

Paris police made 21 arrests for destruction of property and looting amid Sunday night’s celebrations, in the immediate aftermath of PSG’s decisive, title-clinching victory over Lyon.

Riot police square off against PSG supporters in Paris on May 13th. Photo: Samson/AFP

Comparisons were also made in the French media and on Twitter between the way fans of Manchester United and Barcelona celebrated their own league title triumphs to how fans in Paris behaved.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

RIOT

Dozens of police injured during riots at Berlin’s last hold-out squat

Sixty police officers were injured in riots that erupted Wednesday at one of Berlin's last squats ahead of disputed fire protection checks on the building.

Dozens of police injured during riots at Berlin's last hold-out squat
Burning barricades in the Rigaer St. on June 16th. Photo: dpa | Andreas Rabenstein

Its facade covered in murals and anti-capitalist graffiti, the occupied building at 94 Rigaer Strasse is among the squats that mushroomed across the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Numerous attempts have been made in recent years to clear the squat, but each time they have ended in violence.

Ahead of Thursday’s planned fire protection inspection, police had declared the zone a restricted area and banned all demonstrations in the environs.

But as officers arrived on the scene to secure the area, they were met with a hail of stones flung from roofs and the street.

Firecrackers were also hurled from windows and barricades set up by far-left activists were set on fire.

Police said officers were attacked by “around 200 people from the street and from the roof with stones”.

“Material was brought on the street and set on fire,” they added on Twitter.

As water cannons were brought in to put out the fires, officers partially withdrew from the scene.

But they later returned, backed by climbing experts, who were helping them get on the roof of the building to remove stones placed there by residents, added police.

Officials have planned a heavy deployment lasting into Thursday.

Berlin’s interior minister Andreas Geisel vowed a tough crackdown on the militants, saying there can be no special treatment or a “law for Rigaer Strasse”.

Rigaer 94 has been branded by Germany’s domestic security service as the centre of Berlin’s anarchist scene.

While some want to see the counter-culture bastion wiped off the capital’s map, others have defended it as a vestige of an old Berlin rapidly disappearing as property prices and rents rise sharply.

SHOW COMMENTS