In France, the national holiday, Bastille Day, will be marked today with a traditional military parade on the famous Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris, local media reported, adding that the parade will be held with increased security measures due to instability in the world.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that 65,000 members of the security forces will be deployed across France today, and around 11,500 in Paris itself, Le Monde newspaper reported.
Police officers will be deployed to search bags to enter the Champs-Élysées, while the Ministry of Justice has called for extra vigilance, not only because of possible street violence, but also because of discreet injections given to girls by individuals, which contain so-called “rape drugs”.
This phenomenon is common at music and entertainment festivals where the supervision of the participants is weaker.
The Paris Police Prefecture expects around 60,000 citizens in Paris for the military parade, while concerts will be held on the Champs-Élysées in the evening from 9 p.m., and fireworks will be organized at the Eiffel Tower around midnight, as in many cities in France.
The holiday is celebrated to commemorate the storming of the Bastille, the infamous Parisian fortress-prison, on July 14, 1789. It was one of the key moments of the French Revolution.
The fall of the Bastille is a symbol of the unity of the nation and the end of the absolutist monarchy. After that, on August 26, 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was adopted. This declaration later established the French national values – liberty, equality and fraternity (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite).
