Why French government ministers are telling constant mistruths about Liverpool fans

On Wednesday afternoon the French minister of the interior Gérald Darminin and sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra will be questioned before the French senate about their response to the dangerous crushing and police violence which took place at the Stade de France last Saturday before the UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.

The pair have repeatedly sought to blame Liverpool fans for the chaotic scenes which occurred in St. Denis, despite mountains of video evidence proving that fans including women and children arrived on time early for the game, were held in dangerous crushes outside locked turnstiles for over two-and-a-half-hours in the run up to kick-off, and were pepper-sprayed and beaten by local military police officers.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Darmanin and Oudéa-Castéra doubled down on their blame of Liverpool fans and referred to statistics claiming up to 40,000 people with fake tickets or no ticket at all attempted to enter the stadium. Those figures were proven physically, mathematically, literally, impossible in the immediate aftermath.

In order to understand why these mistruths are being actively spready by two senior French government figures with enormous responsibility for public safety and security, we need to consider the current political situation in France, where these two ministers have come from and why they are in their current roles, and what the response in France has been to the incident and the highly controversial and downright offensive nonsense being espoused in the days since.

Gérald Darminin

Gérald Darmanin is France’s minister of the interior. This is the French equivalent of being Home Secretary, the position currently held by Priti Patel in the United