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Published on
19.07.2019 at 11:54
by
AFP
Thousands of additional French policemen are expected to be on duty later Friday in Paris and in other major cities following clashes between Algerian football fans that sparked a debate over national identity.
Algeria will face Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations final on Friday night, with overwhelming enthusiasm in France, home to a huge population of Algerian origin because of its colonial history.
Thousands of people partied in the streets when Algeria won its quarter-final on July 11 and again in the semifinal on July 14, but the celebrations were then spoiled by looting and street clashes.
"I call people celebrating, even though I understand their joy, to behave," Paris police chief Didier Lallement said Wednesday at a press conference.
Around 2,500 police officers will be mobilized around the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe where crowds set off fireworks and waved flags on the windows of cars last Sunday, Bastille Day.
Clashes with the police in the early morning, after looting the previous week, led to the arrest of more than 200 people, who were sentenced by the police and the government, as well as by politicians of the day. ;far right.
The fact that the semi-final coincides with the Bastille Day, which celebrates the French Republic and its armed forces, has particularly displeased nationalist politicians who worry about the consequences of immigration.
"Like many French people, I was shocked to see the French kidnap the French flag and place the Algerian flag," Friday morning right-wing politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan said.
Dupont-Aignan said that Algerian fans born in France, many of whom have dual nationality, could "go back" to North Africa if they preferred Algeria.
"I want to ask these young people, who are a minority I hope: France welcomed you, fed, educated, cared for, but if you prefer Algeria, if it is better than France , return to Algeria! "
Violence erupted in France in the past after major football matches involving Algeria, notably at the 2014 World Cup, which led the leader of the far right Marine Le Pen to propose to dismantle the rioters of their French nationality.
"Their victories are our nightmare," said Sebastien Chenu, party spokesman for the national Le Pen rally. "Every time there is a match against Algeria … there are problems."
During a friendly match between France and Algeria in 2001 in Paris, the French national anthem was booed heartily during the first field meeting between the two countries since the independence of Algeria in 1962, after 130 years of French rule.
The National Gathering called on Friday to ban Algerian fans from visiting the Champs-Elysees, a request that the Paris police said was impractical and unfair.
"For me, people who go to the Champs-Elysées are happy citizens," said the police chief, Lallement, at the press conference.
– Volunteers help the police –
Others pointed out that the overwhelming majority of supporters have peacefully marked Algeria's last two victories in the African Cup and that many Franco-Algerians feel free to celebrate the successes of both countries.
"We are saddened by the events of July 14th," Faiza Menai told AFP on Sunday of Debout Algeria, a group that brings together members of the Algerian diaspora in France.
She recalled that France had witnessed six months of violent demonstrations during the so-called "yellow vest" protest against the government, supported by Le Pen and other far-right groups.
The violence in football was caused not only by Algerians, she added, and is the result of the frustration of a minority living in a poor suburb of the French suburbs.
"It's unfortunate that there are people who come forward just to get in trouble. As in the case of yellow vests, you have these young guys who misunderstood. They come from the suburbs and take advantage of the situation to take their revenge, "she said.
His group plans to send volunteers in fluorescent orange vest on the Champs-Elysees to "try to limit the damage by raising awareness and supporting the authorities."
Azouz Begag, a novelist and former minister of the French government in 2005-2007, called on his French-Algerian compatriots to "reaffirm after the match against Senegal that they are at home in France, that they pay taxes and are voters.
"The public spaces of the republic are theirs," he writes in Le Monde.
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