Everyone fears there will be an attack at Euro 2016. In the host cities, emergency services have been rehearsing France's worst nightmare in eerily realistic training exercises which replicate bombings or chemical attacks on stadiums. Never before has a tournament been staged amid such a backdrop of fear.

“We know that [the Islamic State group] is planning more attacks, and that France is clearly a target,” Patrick Calvar, head of the national intelligence agency, told the defence committee. “The question, when it comes to the threat, is not if, but when and where.”

Back at the Stade de France, workers are busily putting the finishing touches to the stadium before Euro 2016 - the first major tournament France has hosted since the 1998 World Cup. Flags are laid on seats, the exterior is bedecked in the multi-coloured livery of sponsors. Other preparations are more sombre. On 19 May, France’s parliament voted to extend the state of emergency, imposed following the November attacks, to cover the championship.

“We know that danger exists,” says Vincent Duluc. “As long as football encourages us all to live together in harmony, the terrorists will choose to wage war on it. They want to divide society, whereas the goal of football is to unite it.”

Across France, the divisive effects of the attacks are already being felt.

Opinion polls show that, for the first time, the Front National - led by Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter Marine - is likely to be the most popular party in the first round of next year's presidential election, with about 30% of the vote.

“The context now is very similar to 1998,” says Julien Laurens. “There’s a lot of unrest, there are problems in rough areas, again. There are issues with terrorism - people don’t feel safe. There’s a feeling that because of what happened, we have discrimination again, which had stopped for a while and now is coming back."

 We need France to do well [in the Euros], to do something special because it will bring people together.”

Whether the team is capable of shouldering that burden is unclear. Managed by 1998 captain Didier Deschamps, they are among the favourites for the tournament, but friendly results have been erratic - including defeats by Albania and England.

As so often, the team have found it easier to reflect the French public's divisions than to capture their support. Star striker Karim Benzema - a Muslim of Algerian origin - has been banished from the squad as he is investigated for his part in an alleged plot to blackmail fellow international Mathieu Valbuena.

Opinion is divided on whether this squad, talented and ethnically diverse but unproven and overshadowed by the calamities of the recent past, can recapture the spirit of that magical summer of '98.

“I think the moment where the eyes of the country were on the football team, in 1998, is behind us,” says Duluc.

“Everything that has happened since - especially the 2010 World Cup - has left its mark on the hearts of the French public. For many supporters of France, the team have betrayed their confidence - they have broken something that cannot be repaired. It would take the young players in the team to do something really special for us to see the same phenomenon again.”

But Thierry Henry - who still remembers the moment during the 1998 celebrations when an elderly woman thanked him for giving the country its finest hour since the Liberation - has more faith in his successors.

“Sometimes in France we have doubts about whether we should support a team at the beginning, but then as soon as you get good results, the French population usually back the team,” he says.

“This team has to create that togetherness, and it looks like they are going to have a good tournament, so I think we will see that togetherness we saw in 1998.”