Paris, December 4 (PL) - French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra today acknowledged the security challenges for the Paris-2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games following a terrorist attack and promised a tough hand against violence in soccer.
Speaking to France Inter, she reacted to the concerns generated by two recent murders, the weekend terrorist act in a Parisian tourist area, where a radicalized Islamist stabbed a German-Filipino visitor, and the death on Saturday, also by stabbing, of a fan in the context of the Nantes-Nice Ligue1 match.
According to the headline, the terrorist threat, in particular from radical Islamists, exists and is not new, so it is not specific either to France or to the Olympic Games, scheduled from July 26 to August 11 next year, or the Paralympics, from August 28 to September 8.
"We follow it very closely, both by the forces of the Ministry of the Interior and by the environment of the President of the Republic. We are clear about this threat and we are doing everything to reduce it as much as possible," he said.
In this regard, Oudéa-Castéra stressed that security measures will be significantly reinforced during the summer sports events in this capital, including the establishment of perimeters with "extremely exhaustive" controls.
The French Minister of Sports admitted the particular challenge that will represent the opening ceremony of Paris-2024, which will be held in the open air with the Seine River as a protagonist and hundreds of thousands of spectators.
As for violence in soccer, he launched a "enough is enough" and promised a "global and extraordinarily determined" response, in coordination with the Ministers of the Interior and Justice, the French Football Federation, the Professional Football League and the clubs.
Faced with radical situations, radical measures, said Oudéa-Castéra, who considered that when there is a risk of violence in a match, the movement of rival fans should be prohibited.