Faced with this steep bill, the two leaders of the French Canon, Géraud du Fayet de la Tour and Pierre-Alexandre de Boisse, denounce this bill. They claim to ensure the security of their event themselves, for which tickets are sold for 80 euros. This bill arouses strong tensions around this gathering, while these events are controversial and are suspected of conveying far-right ideas, particularly since the ultraconservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin became a shareholder.
To justify this financial requirement, the prefecture recalls that it is only applying article L. 211-11 of the internal security code, an old legislative provision dating from 1995 and applied daily throughout France to numerous for-profit events, such as music festivals or football and rugby matches.
Before this administrative decision, the protest had already been organized on the ground. In mid-October, the French anti-Canon collective mobilized in front of the Bayonne sub-prefecture to demand the cancellation of the event, while one hundred Basque personalities also signed a manifesto against the holding of the banquet in Biarritz.
The sum of 45,000 euros corresponds precisely to the cost of the police or gendarmerie forces which cannot be linked to the normal obligations incumbent on the public authorities in terms of maintaining order, indicates the prefecture in a written response to ICI Basque Country.