Chirac is all talk, and no action. Here's what Chirac was saying almost 8 years ago, in 1998 when cars were being burned by mooligans in Neuhof, near Strasbourg.
French President Jacques Chirac, in his annual New Year message, denounced growing violence in France and urged people to help the police control the problem. He said: "There is too much violence in our country, too much insecurity - in the schools, on public transport. Every day new limits are broken beyond which our society will disintegrate."Cars are now burned annually, on January 1, in Neuhof.
Car burning in particular seems to have become a popular form of expression. In the Strasbourg area, some 500 cars were torched in 1997, up from 400 the previous year. Other cities were not so hard-hit but have had increases."Burning cars has become a kind of ritual," said scholar Farhad Khosrokhavar, who studies young Muslims in the suburbs. "Through this violence, [young people] feel involved in society. They feel like stars.