Final of the Coupe de France: a stormy welcome in anticipation for Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the France Cup match on Saturday, April 29. © KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

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Emmanuel Macron will attend the final of the Coupe de France football between Nantes and Toulouse at the Stade de France, on the evening of Saturday, April 29. But will he go down to the pitch to shake hands with the players? It is still the vagueness on the eve of the match, while the unions promised a stormy welcome to the president, in the midst of a challenge to the pension reform.

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Will the head of state break with the tradition of the France Cup of Football that wants him to shake hands with the 22 players, coaches and referees before the kick-off of the match? Nothing is less certain, according to a source close to the file cited by AFP and taken up by several French media, Emmanuel Macron will not go down on the lawn. An information that the Elysée has not confirmed or denied. What is certain is that Emmanuel Macron will attend the match, as he does every year.

The final between Nantes and Toulouse is classified as "high risk" by the intelligence services and 3,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilized around the Stade de France. Gates will also be raised in the corners to prevent an invasion of the ground, according to a police source.

If the vagueness remains, it is because the trade unions opposed to the pension reform plan to distribute tens of thousands of red cards and thousands of whistles to spectators at the exit of the RER and the metro, on their way to the enclosure.

Red cards that should be brandished when Emmanuel Macron would appear on the pitch and whistles used in the 49th minute of the match, in reference to the use of 49.3 to pass the reform. On Thursday, a voluntary power cut, claimed by the CGT, plunged into darkness and interrupted for half an hour the Pro D2 match between Agen and Nevers.

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The final of the Coupe de France is not the games of the Roman circus. It is not the CGT with its imperial thumb that could decide who to boo the President of the Republic, to whom to cut the electricity during a match, "responded this morning the spokesman of the government Olivier Véran. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said only that the president "will do what he wants".

"The final of the Coupe de France is not the games of the Roman circus"

Olivier Véran, spokesperson for the French government

► Read also: France: Emmanuel Macron welcomed in Vendôme by a concert of pots and pans

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