The large-scale New Year’s Eve celebrations on the Champs-Élysées have been cancelled this year due to security reasons; however, the key traditional festivities will take place as usual, officials said.
The decision to cancel the grand celebrations triggered a heated debate online. The iconic Champs-Élysées is the central point of the New Year celebrations, and hundreds of thousands of people gather to see fireworks, music, and countdown celebrations. However, in recent years, these gatherings have posed a considerable threat and security challenges to French authorities.
Despite the cancellations, the open-air show and fireworks on display at the Arc de Triomphe will still go ahead as planned, and a pre-recorded concert will be broadcast on television, which will allow celebrations to go ahead in a controlled manner
Why did France decide to cancel the grand celebration?
Police decided to cancel the live New Year’s Eve concert on the Champs-Élysées due to crowd-control issues that have caused difficulties in the past, too, according to reports. The mayor agreed with the Paris Police to cancel the live event.
France’s Interior Minister warned about a high security threat from extremist organisations like al-Qaeda and ISIS and has ordered a strong deployment of police in the French capital, keeping the intelligence agencies on high alert.
In 2018, a deadly attack at the Strasbourg Christmas market left five people dead and several others injured, and since then, the security measures have been very tight around the New Year. According to officials, Paris has usually seen violence around New Year’s Eve. In the past two years, police reported looting, clashing, and damage to properties, which included hundreds of car fires and arrests.
According to France Info, a police commissioner said, “Last year, we had more scares in two hours of New Year’s Eve celebrations on the Champs-Élysées than in three weeks of the Olympic Games.”
Officials have called the change in the usual celebration a move to promote public safety during the new year.
