Burning cars in France is ‘playful’ says sosiologist

Some 1031 vehicles were set on fire on the night of December 31st and the early hours of the morning of January 1st, up from last year’s 935. A leading French sosiologist has called such acts “playful”.

During incidents of civil unrest and riots, on Bastille Day celebrations as well as over New Year’s Eve, car burning and skirmishes with law enforcement have remained a constant feature.

In these so-called “Sensitive Urban Zones “ (ZUS) “experts” have attempted to underplay the role that inter-ethnic strife plays in the arson attacks.

French Sociologist Michel Wieviorka maintains that the acts of vandalism are “above all, playful” and he denied that arson has a political dimension. “It is very easy, technically, to set a vehicle on fire and run away immediately,” he said, because the perpetrator does not really risk of arrest.

This “tradition” has been observed since the 1980s and 1990s in France and it appeared during the first migrant urban violence, exhibiting traits of an information war.

“I even remember that at the end of the 1990s, when I was studying the problems of urban violence in Strasbourg, young people from a non-white neighbourhood proudly explained to us that when they burned cars, TF1 teams moved while those of another suburb could only bring the regional press!” Wieviorka unwittingly explained.

“Obviously, they are more young people from non-white neighbourhoods. But you have to be very careful,” he said. But for thirty years, France has not managed to solve immigration problems or urban violence.

Following Germany’s lead to limit free speech, French President Macron meanwhile said on Wednesday that he would overhaul French media legislation this year to fight the spread of “fake news” in what appears to be the promotion of an elitist Orwellian utopia.

Reuters reported that since he was elected last year, Macron has criticized Russian media in particular, openly accusing TV channel RT of “sowing disinformation” about him via its website and social media during the presidential election.

“If we want to protect liberal democracies, we must have strong legislation,” Macron told a news conference.

Macron said the legislation would concern social media platforms, especially during election periods, and deeply change the role of France’s media watchdog CSA.

His response to the spread of information comes in the wake of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s think tank report in December, warning that realism about immigration was now a permanent fixture of political structures in the EU.

In Hungary, government spokesman, Zoltán Kovács told news portal PestiSrácok.hu that it was no longer possible to talk about reality “with pointless political correctness that leads nowhere”.

He said “reality has finally broken through the wall of silence and nonsense, and is beginning to reveal itself” across the European Union (EU).

“Thanks to Hungary and the Hungarian government – among others – we have managed to dismantle the wall which hides reality from the sight of European public opinion. In this, we have had an undeniable role.

“We were the first to start to talk about the [migration] crisis. By doing so, we achieved a great deal; we have yet plenty to do, but time is on our side,” the government spokesman added.