Euro 2016: How prepared was the French Republic?
Riot police in France have used tear gas to halt clashes between British soccer fans and locals in the French port city of Marseilles ahead of a European soccer event. Police said on Friday that two British fans were injured and four police officers slightly hurt in a string of incidents overnight involving British soccer fans and locals. Euro 2016 is now more of a problem to the EU political nation. The issues are too many!! UK Hooligans, industrial action, train drivers strike, Takfiri attacks and like CPDM Cameroon, over flowing rubbish bins littered everywhere in Paris.
Witnesses said the fight between the fans and the locals, outside a pub in the Mediterranean city’s Old Port district, was stopped by police, who quickly restored order by separating the two groups from one another. It is not clear how the brawl began. Police said that two British hooligans were arrested.
France is already in the grip of industrial action, mainly over reforms to labor law. President Francois Hollande warned against attempts to disrupt Euro 2016 with strike action. Train drivers are threatening to strike on a line serving the Stade de France in St Denis just outside Paris, where France play Romania in the first match. France is also on high alert since Takfiri attacks on Paris in November, one which took place at the Stade de France, and is still reeling from floods in central and northern regions. “I appeal to everyone’s sense of responsibility because if the state must do its duty – and it will, it will take all the measures that are necessary,” Hollande said on Thursday.
Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said Friday France may order striking rail employees back to work. Vidalies told Europe 1 radio that the government would use “every tool available” to get fans to the match and “if we have to issue orders tomorrow (for trains to be driven), we will do so.” He also ruled out any new negotiations with workers who have been striking for 10 days and warned the authorities would show “no tolerance of actions that threaten the big celebration.” “The strike has no meaning anymore,” he added.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo meanwhile announced that rubbish which has been piling up in the capital over the past few days would be cleared. Pictures of overflowing rubbish bins have dominated front pages since unions began blockading incineration plants a few days ago and rubbish truck drivers walked off the job. “All the rubbish will be collected,” Hidalgo told BFMTV channel, adding that dozens of extra garbage trucks had been deployed as part of the cleanup.
Presstv/CIR