The avenue des Champs-Elysées will be reserved for pedestrians on Sunday evening, on the occasion of the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, the Paris police prefect announced on Saturday. Nicolas Nordman, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of security and prevention and guest of Europe 1 on Saturday evening, said for his part "having worked to put in place the device most suited to this exceptional health context". Especially since the coronavirus epidemic has experienced a certain rebound in recent days.
In order to "respect social distancing", from 9 pm there will be no more traffic on the Champs-Elysées so that people "have as much space as possible", added Nicolas Nordman. This "exceptional" device is in principle reserved for the evenings of December 31, but the final of the Champions League and the current health context create a new exception.
Champs-Elysées: gatherings banned two hours after PSG-Bayern
"There will be expressions of joy" in the event of victory, "they simply have to be compatible with public safety" and with the measures linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, said the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, who came to inspect at the Paris Police Prefecture the device planned for Sunday evening.
The minister added that "two hours after the match", the rally would be "totally prohibited and the police and gendarmes will evacuate people".
The perimeter of obligation to wear the mask will be extended for the evening, "prevention points" will be set up and 20,000 masks can be distributed. A "systematic verbalization" will be applied in case of non-wearing of this face protection, also indicated the minister.
In addition, Sunday evening, a broadcast of the match to be played in Lisbon is scheduled in the Parc des Princes, with a capacity limited to 5,000 people. "It is the club which organizes", assured on Europe 1 Nicolas Nordman, the assistant to the security at the town hall of Paris, for whom, at the Park, the "things will happen in a quite serene way".
3,000 members of the police will be mobilized
In total, a staff of 3,000 members of the police will be mobilized, in particular for the "security" of "shops and establishments" on the avenue, said the prefect. 17 metro stations will be closed.
Tuesday evening, after the victory of PSG in the semi-finals of the competition, the Champs-Elysées district had been the scene of violence and thefts on the sidelines of the demonstrations of jubilation, despite the important police device. Of the 36 people taken into custody that night, 26 were then brought to justice, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Among them, a man was sentenced Thursday in immediate appearance to six months suspended sentence for violence against the police in recidivism. Six people have also accepted their sentence through plea-guilty proceedings and seven others are due to be tried later. In all, 13 people were temporarily banned from traveling to Paris.