France to reinstate border controls for UN climate meeting

France will reinstate controls on its borders — normally open to other countries in Europe’s free-travel zone — for the period around a major U.N. climate conference in Paris, the interior minister said Friday.

 

Authorities are on alert for violent protesters as well as potential terror attacks around the Nov. 30-Dec. 11 conference. Some 80 heads of state including U.S. President Barack Obama, and tens of thousands of other people, are expected in Paris for the conference opening.

 

Bernard Cazeneuve said on BFM television Friday that the controls will be in place for a month “in the context of terrorist threats that could come and stain this large international gathering that is carrying a grand message for humanity.”

 

Foreign minister Laurent Fabius said Friday in a news conference that “for obvious security reasons during the conference — and not after— there will be measures to make sure that the crowds of people who will come, don’t come here with intentions that are not peaceful.”

 

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