Bar and restaurant owners will not be "allowed to set up giant screens outside their businesses" during Euro 2016, according to the AP. The move "is aimed at improving security during the month-long tournament, with French authorities expecting fewer people will gather outside official fan zones if outdoor screens are banned." France has been under a state of emergency "since last November's coordinated attacks which killed 130 people at a rock concert, on the terraces of bars and restaurants and outside the Stade de France, the stadium where the football tournament will begin on Friday." France Sport Minister Thierry Braillard said that the official fan zones "are the only outdoor public spaces where screens will be installed." He said, "We can't accept unorganized gatherings because police forces don't have the means to secure them. And a live screening on a terrace means gathering around a screen." The ban is "expected to annoy bar and restaurant owners, especially in the south of France were people spend warm summer evenings outdoors." French hotel industry union UMIH Head Bernard Marty said that he "received contradictory information from police." Marty: "The government should coordinate better with its officials so we could figure out better what is going on. Maybe they want to boost Marseille's economy in the fan zone only, at the expense of all other retail traders who made investments" (AP, 6/9).
'BETTER THINGS TO DO': L’ÉQUIPE reported former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the choice of having fan zones during Euro 2016 was not “suitable” and that police and gendarmes “have better things to do” during a state of emergency. Sarkozy: “There are a few things I do not understand, on one side we say the state of emergency must be extended … and at the same time we say that we’ll have fan zones and put 100,000 people at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.” He added, “If we are under a state of emergency, it feels irresponsible to have fan zones” (L’ÉQUIPE, 6/9).
