Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Paris stands tall against Le Pen
Activists hang banner from the Eiffel Tower
PARIS: Security has been stepped up at the Eiffel Tower ahead of tomorrow’s presidential election in France after Greenpeace activists scaled the Paris landmark and hung up a big political banner.
The escapade early yesterday in which activists used mountaineering helmets, ropes and shackles, prompted the Paris police chief to call an emergency meeting where the new security measures were decided.
Separately, police officers arrested a “radicalised” man near a military air base near the town of Evreux northwest of the French capital in an incident that judicial sources said was related to a counter-terrorist inquiry.
Security chiefs, after attacks by Islamist militants, have already announced extra police for patrolling key areas on voting day tomorrow when a centrist politician meets a veteran from the far-right after a turbulent and at times angry campaign.
More than 230 people have been killed in attacks in Paris and other parts of France in the past two-and-a-half years.
Just three days before a first round of voting on April 23, a policeman was shot dead in central Paris by a gunman in an attack claimed by IS .
A dozen activists from the Greenpeace advocacy group were arrested yesterday after climbing the north face of the vast metal-latticed Eiffel Tower, one of the world’s most visited sites, to hang a banner carrying the French national motto, “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity).
“Above and beyond the motives, this publicity stunt, in the current climate, exposes faults in the security arrangements at the Eiffel Tower,” police prefect Michel Delpuech said.
Paris City Hall issued a statement after an emergency meeting to say sniffer- dog patrols would be more than doubled, and video-monitoring around the area improved.
As tension mounted ahead of tomorrow’s vote, police arrested a man when he returned to his car parked near a military air base in Evreux, judicial sources said.
At least three in four of 47 million voters are set to go to polling stations throughout the day tomorrow to cast a ballot in a second-round contest where centrist Emmanuel Macron is tipped to beat National Front leader Marine Le Pen, a controversial figure.
The Paris crisis talks involved police as well as officials from City Hall and the company that runs the tower which was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution in 1789 and is visited by an average of about 19 000 people per day.
A dozen Greenpeace activists were detained for questioning, police said.
Beneath the French republican slogan in large black letters was the word “Resist”, a message directed against Le Pen and her National Front party.
Greenpeace said a dozen activists were involved, hoisting a 300m2 banner at around 7.45am, which is before normal business hours but well after dawn has broken at this time of year.
“We wanted to say we are against the rise of nationalism and authoritarianism in France and in other countries,” Greenpeace France’s head, Jean-Francois Julliard, added on public radio station francinfo. – Reuters