The tribute is limited to three small bouquets of flowers and a solitary yellow rose. They are hooked to a metal fence next to the sign that informs about the subway station. The majority, Parisians and tourists, do not pay attention. The feverish daily life of the great metropolis has swallowed the tragedy.
A few days ago, on the night of December 2, Collin, a German tourist of Filipino origin, was brutally murdered here. He was 23 years old and a nurse by profession. A Frenchman of Iranian parents, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, stabbed him four times and hit him twice with a hammer while he shouted “Alahu akbar” (God is the greatest).
The drama occurred at the entrance to the Bir-Hakeim bridge, one of the most cinematic in the capital, on two levels – one elevated, for the subway, and the other for vehicles and pedestrians –, which receives its name from a battle in the Libyan desert during World War II. The bridge, with an unbeatable view of the Eiffel Tower, has a certain New York feel. It was used to film one of the scenes in Last Tango in Paris, the legendary film by Bernardo Bertolucci.
Collin was not the only victim of homicidal delirium. The aggressor crossed to the north bank of the Seine and attacked anyone who crossed his path with hammer blows. They were another tourist, the British Melvyn, 65, and the Frenchman Thierry, 60. They were injured, but saved their lives.
Only an elderly, bent woman dragging a shopping cart pauses thoughtfully in front of the flowers, that humble shrine to Collin's memory. Her name is Rabha. She is 83 years old and is Moroccan, from Casablanca. Since she retired she has resided in the area, in her daughter's apartment. “I pray that God has welcomed him and gives peace to his parents,” says the old woman in reference to Collin.
–Is she Muslim?
–Yes, but not very practical. I rarely go to the mosque.
–The murderer shouted “Alahu akbar”. What do you think?
–Nowhere in the Koran is it encouraged to kill! –She answers, energetically–. That person was sick. We are at crazy expense. My daughter stopped by the next day and she showed my two grandchildren around. She explained to them what happened and they started crying.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab, in fact, suffers from very serious psychiatric problems and was undergoing treatment. After the attack, the police immobilized him by shooting him with a taser gun (electroshock weapon). The murderer had spent four years in prison for preparing a terrorist action against the financial district of La Défense. He was registered as a dangerous Islamist. His own mother, concerned, had reported a month ago about the suspicious behavior of her son. She had isolated herself too much. There was no reaction to his alert.
The Bir-Hakeim bridge attack once again reminded France that it is the number one target of jihadism in Europe. Almost three hundred dead from Islamist terrorism since 2012. The Gaza war has further increased the threat, despite the balances that President Emmanuel Macron makes to support Israel in its response to Hamas and, at the same time, demand a truce, as soon as possible, to avoid the suffering of Palestinian civilians and move towards a lasting political settlement. Added to the difficult French equation is the fact that the country is home to the largest Jewish community on the continent and a Muslim and Arab population of millions of people.
The December 2 episode was preceded by the murder of a teacher in Arras, in the north of the country, on October 13, at the hands of a radicalized former student. Although these are isolated acts, typical of lone wolves, concern is growing ahead of the Olympic Games, which must begin on July 26 of next year. An opening ceremony never seen before has been planned, with delegations of athletes parading on boats along the Seine on a six-kilometre route, between the Iena and Austerlitz bridges, and an audience of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly with free access to the show.
The Government and the organizing committee want to maintain the plans, although the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, failed to say that the fear of a terrorist attack during the Games haunts him "every day and every night."
The police prefect of Paris, Laurent Nuñez – from a Spanish family – assures that the surveillance device will be extraordinary, with up to four protection perimeters in the most sensitive places and 45,000 agents. The multinational Thales has developed an artificial intelligence system installed in the command centers of the security forces to detect dangerous situations in real time, in a multitude of scenarios, and be able to react quickly.
“All countries are exposed to risks,” Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne wanted to reassure in an interview with Le Figaro. “We mobilize resources and we will do so even more if necessary.” “We must not be deluded, there is a part of misinformation,” she added, making it clear that there is propaganda interested in promoting fear.
Despite all the official guarantees, doubts are beginning to arise. They are raised by authoritative voices. One of them is Fréderic Péchenard, vice president of the Île de France region (Paris and its surroundings) and former director general of the National Police. In several recent interviews, Péchenard confessed that he was in cold sweat before the opening ceremony, given an international context that he shows no signs of calming down. That is why he asked that an alternative be seriously reflected on.
“A double question is going to be asked in May and June – Péchenard declared to Le Monde –. Will we feel capable of guaranteeing the safety of the ceremony? Will the invited delegations accept the conditions, parading in boats in the open air? We are not sure of anything. So you have to think of a plan B.” A few weeks earlier, also a former Sports Minister, former judoka David Douillet, evoked in an article the need for a plan B.
Giving up the parade along the Seine and returning to the classic scheme of doing it in the Olympic stadium would be a very hard blow. Macron was fascinated by the idea of the river from the beginning, despite the reluctance always expressed by those responsible for security. What a unique postcard from Paris! What a triumph for the France brand! If everything goes well, of course.
The most that is admitted by the Government is that, depending on what happens before the Games and what the intelligence reports say, there may be “modulations” and “adjustments” to plan A regarding the authorized number of public and other details. First there was talk of 600,000 people. Now the possible figure of 400,000 is being considered. What is certain is that all residents and workers in the area will be controlled and, in some cases, investigated before the sporting event. A colossal task for an already overwhelmed police force.
The attacks in Arras and the Bir-Hakeim bridge have highlighted how difficult it is to follow up on people identified as dangerous extremists and likely to take action. The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), responsible for antiterrorism, assures that it has prevented 43 attacks since 2017, three of them since March of this year. But it is impossible to monitor all potential terrorists. An army of tens of thousands of agents would be needed twenty-four hours a day. In addition, there is the psychiatric factor (20% of those classified as jihadists suffer from mental problems), which causes unpredictable reactions. Some resort to the tactic of dissimulation of one's faith (taqiyya) that is advised to Muslims when they are in hostile territory.
The trickle of terrorist actions exacerbates the political debate. The right and the extreme right constantly call for more strictness in immigration and asylum laws. To ensure that jihadists already booked cannot kill again, they propose expelling foreigners from the country and expanding the application of the so-called “security hold”; that is, preventively imprison those who are classified as threats, even if they have already served their sentences. This is an exceptional measure that borders the limits of the rule of law. There is already a security retention in the law today, although only for very specific cases of people who have been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison and who, after leaving prison, continue to pose an unacceptable danger to society.
The meticulous work, for years, of the DGSI and the spectacular nature of the police force should be able to deter the preparation of a major attack. However, detecting all possible lone wolves and aborting their plans to attack somewhere outside the Olympic facilities, such as a subway station, seems almost impossible. There is also the problem of the lack of private agents who will complement the police and the army. Thousands of candidates are being hastily trained, although perhaps without the necessary filters to verify their suitability for the sensitive task they will perform.
One hundred years after the 1924 Paris Games, those in which Johnny Weissmuller, the future Tarzan of the movies, was the swimming hero, the 2024 Olympics are for Macron the zenith of his second presidential term, the definitive message of its project of an innovative and attractive country, the startup nation that organizes the Choose France conference every year to attract international investments. The Games are a political dream at the price of a growing police nightmare. Everyone is crossing their fingers.
