French opposition slams Champions League chaos

French leftist opposition leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has slammed police behavior at the Champions League final in Paris on Saturday night, lamenting that it portrayed the country in a bad light. Right-wing opposition leader Marine Le Pen likewise described a “feeling of humiliation” stemming from the riots outside the stadium, though her shame was directed at “excesses” among fans.

Melenchon called the scene “lamentable” and “worrying,” arguing the police were supposed to “ensure calm” and “prevent things going badly” but had instead done just the opposite and “aggravated” the situation.

The habitual reversion of officers to what he called “confrontational policing” showed the force was incapable of handling large-scale sporting events, he suggested, including the Rugby World Cup scheduled for next year or 2024’s Paris Olympics. 

Le Pen, too, was worried about the wider world’s perception of France in light of the rioting outside the Stade de France, expressing concern in an interview with Le Figaro on Sunday that “all the capitals who watched it found that France was no longer able to organize large demonstrations without them degenerating.”

She split the blame between the event organizers, whom she said would “have to explain” the “disorganization” that allowed hordes of unticketed fans and fake-ticket holders to storm the arena, and “a traditional delinquency which makes every event turn into a riot.”

READ MORE: 2 people shot dead by police in Paris amid protests – media

Police teargassed and pepper-sprayed fans at the match as the large number of attendees and security checks created delays at the stadium’s entrance area. Kickoff was delayed as the audience struggled to make it to their seats in time.

Real Madrid came out on top in the match, beating Liverpool 1-0 to earn their 14th European Cup title.
Some 68 people were arrested in the stadium area overnight, while 39 more were taken in for questioning, police confirmed. Four people were evacuated for medical reasons, and 115 more in the area were slightly injured, according to Le Monde. 

Police defended their behavior in a statement, claiming the area had been evacuated “calmly” with “no incidents.” Another, seemingly contradictory, statement released by police praised their “rapid intervention” for allowing “a return to calm” by clearing the way “for troublemakers to be evacuated away from the entrance” after “numerous” ticketless fans “disturbed access to the stadium,” climbing fences to get into the game without paying. 

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin likewise blamed unruly fans for the fiasco, claiming it was “thousands of British ‘supporters’, without tickets, or with false tickets” attempting to force their way into the stadium by attacking staff and police.

Video posted to social media showed police attacking patrons at a bar near the Liverpool ‘fan zone’, beating them with batons and overturning bar furniture in their haste to club their targets.

French boxer Estelle Mossely, who attended the match, reported that she had been “blocked for more than an hour, gassed and shoved” in a tweet describing the affair as “scandalous.”