The construction of the glass wall around one of the most distinctive points in Paris shows that only between walls there is perception of security

A glass wall and a wired fence protect the base of the Eiffel Tower against possible terrorist attacks since last June 17. The construction works for these devices are scheduled to be completed in full by September this year. Although it is the first measure of this kind in Europe, as a consequence of the terrorist attacks that have occurred since 2015, for the French police it is no guarantee that attacks will not occur.

Leer en español: Francia: El miedo enjaula a la Torre Eiffel

The case of the Eiffel Tower draws attention because it is the first great wall that is built to protect a tourist and historical site, since Europe has been hit by terrorist attacks, mainly mass abuses. Although since 2016, the esplanade of the Tower was closed, the idea of ​​the wall emerged in 2017 in order to foresee an unfortunate event. "One of the two security devices is a glass wall 6.5 cm thick and 3 meters high," said Bernard Gaudillère, president of the company that manages the Parisian monument. The glass wall "is solid, foolproof, and absolutely safe" in the face of possible bullet shooting, he added. The glass wall is located only on two sides of the tower, for the other two sides the French police guarantee the safety of the visitors, without damaging the panorama, with a wire fencing and concrete blocks particularly resistant to avoid massive collisions.

Europe against terrorist attacks

Following the eight coordinated attacks that killed 130 people in November 2015, the French government declared a state of emergency that Parliament approved to extend until February 26, 2016. In addition, the law was modified allowing the police carry out 2,090 home searches between November 14 and December 1, and 296 people were subjected to permanent location. However, for the interior minister of that time, Bernard Cazenueve, the measures were not being strong enough to contain a massive attack. Therefore, the army was deployed to watch over the cities.

Amnesty International, in its report for the second half of 2016, corroborated what Cazenueve said and showed that, with the measures taken, only people who were Muslim were subjected to a type of persecution that was not showing great results. The French government, making use of this report, began to contemplate other types of measures, due to terrorist acts in Europe, to protect the pedestrian.

Luxembourg, Slovakia, the Netherlands, and other countries in the region tightened their anti-terrorist laws that contemplated extending the length of time that suspects of terrorism-related crimes could be held in preventive detention, without the need to demonstrate such suspicions. In the United Kingdom, this was accompanied by measures designed to identify and prevent the "violent extremism" that, as pointed out by the human rights organization, entailed the danger of stigmatizing the Muslim population.

However, the tightening of laws did not stop the massive abuses, so that concrete blocks, sandbags or car barriers began to be some of the devices deployed in European countries to protect the population from attacks by vehicle. An operating mode increasingly used. The walls of the Eiffel Tower are the first measures that exceed these contentions.

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Living between walls

Jean-François Martins, in charge of tourism of the city of Paris, affirms that, although the measure is not something that should be implemented, the situation that Europe is going through has forced to carry out this type of decisions.

Fernando Reinares, director of the Global Terrorism program of the Elcano Royal Institute, says that "with the wall built around the Eiffel Tower, it is getting to the point where only living between walls is calm (…) the human being only feels calm when is locked, and we are moving that perspective to the tourist sites and historic buildings. The wall of the Eiffel Tower, although it was designed to not clash with the environment, already creates a syllogism of confinement and security, now it is a matter of seeing which cities will copy this model".

For Reinares, in an interview with the newspaper ABC, the human being with measures such as the glass wall begins to transfer from the personal sphere to the public social sphere.

Latin American Post | Carlos Eduardo Gómez Avella
Translated from “Francia: El miedo enjaula a la Torre Eiffel”