Gangs celebrated New Year’s Eve in France by torching nearly 1,000 vehicles
The French people “stopped fascism” by turning the left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, into the largest parliamentary group in the National Assembly. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, despite being the most voted party, ended up as the third-largest group with fewer than 150 seats. The success of the Popular Front—composed of leftists, socialists, greens, and communists—was significantly driven by the support of Muslim communities and descendants of immigrants. While President Macron has refused to appoint a prime minister from this coalition, its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is ambitiously aiming for a spot in the second round of the 2027 presidential elections.
The celebration of their victory took a few months to materialize, but it has been dramatic nonetheless. Over 25 years ago, the practice of burning cars on New Year’s Eve began in Strasbourg, carried out by gangs of vandals, most of whom live in suburban areas, are petty criminals, and come from immigrant backgrounds. This practice has since spread across France. According to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a member of Les Républicains (the French equivalent of the conservative PP), a total of 984 vehicles were set on fire this year, including several police cars. Authorities also reported approximately 420 arrests during the night.
The number of vehicles torched represents an increase of almost one-third compared to the previous year, when 745 cars were burned. At that time, then-Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, a liberal aligned with Macron’s party, attempted to mislead the press by reporting lower figures. Over the past decade, nearly 10,000 cars have been destroyed by arson on New Year’s Eve alone. This figure doesn’t account for vehicles burned during other occasions, such as France’s national holiday on July 14 and similar events.
Faced with this ongoing trend, authorities and politicians appear resigned to merely containing the damage, treating these incidents as if they were unavoidable natural disasters. The socialist mayor of Creil, a small northern city of 35,000 residents, even described this year’s New Year’s Eve as “calm” because only two cars were burned and there were “a few mortar explosions.”
The Ministry of the Interior deployed 90,000 police officers and gendarmes across France, with 10,000 stationed in Paris and its surrounding metropolitan area. Hundreds of firefighters and civil protection volunteers were also mobilized to respond to the chaos.
This type of vandalism, which underscores the failure of state institutions, has now spread beyond France’s borders. In Brussels, gangs burned around 30 vehicles, and the police arrested 160 individuals. Despite these developments, the relatively low figures in Belgium suggest that Paris, regardless of the aspirations of EU bureaucrats, remains the uncontested capital of Europe.
