• The number of vehicles burned on New Year's Eve is down 20% from last year, according to Home Office figures.

  • Why this drop?

    Is the phenomenon gradually disappearing?

  • "This drop in the total number of burnt cars is linked to all sorts of factors", explains sociologist Michel Wieviorka.

    The public authorities have also acted to prevent these incidents.

The question has been driving the first of January for several decades.

Since the appearance of this phenomenon during the 1980s. “So, how many cars were burned that night?

“Answer for this transition from 2022 to 2023: 690, according to official figures.

Against 874 a year earlier, 861 in 2021 and above all 1,457 in 2020, a record to date.



The trend is therefore rather downward.

Gérald Darmanin did not fail to point this out, as of Sunday, by evoking this 20% decline compared to last year.

In a press release, the Minister of the Interior also described this last New Year's Eve as the one with the “fewest vehicles burned and the most arrests [490]” in France.

Without forgetting to draw a conclusion: this assessment would be due "to the very important presence of the gendarmes and the police", 90,000 throughout the territory.

Perhaps, but not only, according to Michel Wieviorka.

"This drop in the total number of burnt cars is linked to all kinds of factors", explains the sociologist, calling for the greatest "caution" in the analyses.

According to him, there are multiple reasons for this “phenomenon on a phase of historical decline”.

"The climate in the neighborhoods has evolved"

“I think first of all that the climate in the neighborhoods where this often took place has changed a lot.

It has hardened, with a real distrust of those who embody order, and it is not the vehicles, ”he explains.

“In terms of trafficking too, it's harder, and a certain peace must now reign [for the good of business].

Generations have changed too.

Those who acted twenty years ago, often in rage, anger, or in a playful dimension, no longer do so.

And one can think that the sources of interest of the following generations are no longer the same.

Not to mention a certain wear and tear, since the media no longer devotes so much importance to it.

Even the situation, with a recent World Cup which has already given a lot of opportunities to celebrate…”

But then, would repression or even preventive operations have nothing to do with this change?

The specialist struggles to measure their impact.

“Perhaps they were more effective,” wonders Michel Wieviorka ironically, questioning the case of Strasbourg.

Indeed, the Alsatian capital has long been the capital of burned cars on New Year's Eve.

This time, it also did not escape the setback with around 70 fires, compared to 230 in 2020.

Prevention measures put in place

According to the Bas-Rhin prefecture, a vast police force, with "nearly 3,000 police officers, soldiers, firefighters and marauders" had been put in place.

Not to mention the opening of car parks with free guarding.

“Several districts of Strasbourg and municipalities of the Eurometropolis have thus been able to benefit from the device allowing the safety of 1,200 vehicles”, thus welcomed the agglomeration, which had also pronounced numerous bans on parking in the streets.

Some owners don't even need prevention anymore.

They take care of their belongings on their own, or even voluntarily leave the city for the time of the festival.

A question of experience, after several decades of hearing about, on January 1, a count of burnt cars...

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