On the occasion of the Coupe de France final won by Toulouse against Nantes (5-1), the unions wanted to take advantage of the presence of Emmanuel Macron in Saint-Denis on Saturday to show their protest. Apart from timid whistles in the 49th minute of play, football finally remained at the heart of attention.
Athletic performance has not been eclipsed. The Toulousains won their first Coupe de France, Saturday, April 29, by crushing FC Nantes after a one-sided final (5-1). The end of an evening scrutinized by many because of the presence of Emmanuel Macron in the stands of the Stade de France in the midst of a period of social mobilization.
Apart from a few boos heard when the stopwatch of the meeting showed 49 minutes and 3 seconds, in reference to the 49.3 used by Elisabeth Borne to pass the pension reform, the dispute will ultimately have remained outside the enclosure of Saint- Dennis.
Red cards and whistles against retirements
At the stroke of 5 p.m., the unions nevertheless massed in front of the exits of the RER B, RER D and metro 13 from which yellow and purple waves began to flow. The lifting of the prefectural decree prohibiting them from distributing red cards and whistles to supporters has just been lifted by the Administrative Court of Paris.
“It was really important that justice authorized this demonstration. As soon as we had the information, we all gathered here to distribute this red card to the retirement at 64 years oldsays Xavier, unionist of the SNU, who hoped for a widely followed action in the stadium. For some, this act of political claim is obvious, for others less so, but whatever happens, it allows us to discuss “.
Came with another friend from Nantes, Aurélien took the two objects with pleasure. “We have to make as much noise as possible. We have the opportunity to send a message, it’s important. For me, retirement is a long way off, but I’m doing it for the generation above”explains the 22-year-old whose parents are a house painter and childminder.
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A similar story with Christophe, who made the trip with his family from Toulouse. This 62-year-old railway worker has participated in all the days of strikes since the start of the mobilization against the pension reform. “62 or 63 years old is already too much. Obviously we’re all going to whistle and brandish our cards”.
Confusion at the entrance
The effect was ultimately not as expected. Not only because for the vast majority of supporters, the priority was indeed the final: Nantes could hope to do the double by keeping their title when the TFC was looking for their first major trophy. But also because of confusion when entering the Dionysian enclosure.
When they showed up in front of their door, Toulouse jersey on their backs, Etienne and his daughter Louise saw the stewards asking them to throw away their red cards. An instruction first passed to security, even though it was not an object prohibited by the 2023 stadium internal regulations available on the FFF website (unlike “all types of music and fog horns”, including whistles so as not to disturb the referee).
If these Tef’ fans were finally able to enter the stadium with the cards, after having demanded, exasperated, the intervention of a person in charge of the palpation – who all in all indicated that they had “only an obligation to remove the whistles” – some did not persist. As a result, not many cards showed up in the stands, especially since the face of the President of the Republic never appeared on the stadium’s giant screen. Unlike the Violets, widely celebrated by the Occitan public.