New Year’s Eve is fast approaching. In a context of high terrorist threat, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced a security system accordingly.
Two days before the transition to 2024, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin announced that a significant security system would be put in place for the New Year’s Eve evening. In a context of high terrorist threat on French territory, the minister declared that 95,000 law enforcement officers would be deployed across the four corners of France on the evening of December 31. “I requested the mobilization of more than 90,000 police and gendarmes, 5,000 soldiers from Operation Sentinel and tens of thousands of firefighters,” he said. For the first time, an aerial arsenal made up of around ten helicopters from the national gendarmerie and drones will be put in place to assist law enforcement on the ground.
In the city center of Paris, which will host many festivities, controls will be reinforced with the installation of a security perimeter extending from the Champs-Elysées to Avenue de la Grande Armée, according to information from the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nunez. Systematic searches at each entrance will also be put in place. 6,000 police officers will patrol the capital. Gérald Darmanin promises “great presence and great firmness” for New Year’s Eve.
Several unions nevertheless expressed their dissatisfaction with this strong mobilization of law enforcement. They say they deplore too many personnel deployed during the end-of-year vacation period. A collective of “angry municipal police officers”, made up of unions and associations, is calling on municipal police officers to strike for New Year’s Eve. The collective is asking for an increase in salaries first: “You have municipal police officers who will just be paid under the compensation scheme, others who will have a 10% bonus, a bonus which can go up to 20%”, said explained the head of the Cannes municipal police department, Rémi Andrieux.
