When the specter of a third wave haunts the spirits, the authorities will put the New Year's Eve under a bell.
New Year's Eve is likely to be vitrified.
In a telegram addressed to the prefects, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is very clear: "
Priority must be given in the coming days to the fight against unauthorized gatherings and the phenomena of urban violence".
From December 10, the host of Beauvau had shown his firmness:
"We will be uncompromising on unauthorized gatherings and wild parties,"
he warned alongside Jean Castex.
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In the process, he let go:
"I asked the police to further strengthen the control system",
specifying that this would be done
"with tact and moderation but there will be no instructions for indulgence ".
Clearly, police and gendarmes will be without weakness in the face of free riders.
As soon as the curfew at 8 p.m. comes into effect, the system will ramp up.
In total, no less than 100,000 members of the police will be on the bridge.
In his note to the prefects, Gérald Darmanin asks to set up
“visible”
controls
and to concentrate action
“in city centers and neighborhoods and sensitive areas most prone to these phenomena” in
order, adds- he,
"to ensure the affirmation of the authority of the State at each point of the national territory".
"We are going to set up dynamic patrols allowing the units to cover towns but also the most remote places of the territory",
assures a police officer who warns:
"All offenders caught in the streets without valid proof will be fined."
Clearly, the towns and countryside of France are likely to be strangely deserted, even when the stroke of midnight has struck.
"The best way to celebrate the New Year is not to celebrate it",
summed up, without batting an eyelid, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, in
Le Journal du Dimanche
.
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"The crews will not fail to look at the facades of the buildings to detect possible clandestine parties",
confides an officer, well aware however that
"there will be by definition no way to anticipate these private gatherings of 20 to 50 people
”.
The instruction is to intervene
"as soon as possible", "as soon as a gathering of this type is reported".
In addition to the verbalization of the participants,
"you will seek primarily to identify the organizers",
writes the Minister.
In addition to revelers surprised on balconies, police officers and gendarmes will have in their sights the individuals denounced by a neighborhood on edge when it comes to noise pollution.
According to a latest report from the Prefecture of Police brought to the attention of
Le Figaro
, 1,880 verbalizations were drawn up for nighttime noise between September 25 and December 20 in Paris and in the inner suburbs.
That is an increase of 55% compared to the same period of 2019!
In the capital and its suburbs, the Prefecture of Police has planned to act without weakness.
"But the real difficulties will perhaps not be on the Champs-Élysées where the rule will be respected", we
grimace in the staffs, where we know full well that the meeting at risk of Saint -Sylvestre is played especially in the cities.
Experts will observe like milk on fire the "republican reconquest districts", where a fringe of the population is looking for clashes with the police.
More than ever, these territories are the scene, on New Year's Eve, of car fire rituals.
Apart from Manuel Valls who had revealed, at the beginning of January 2013, that 1,193 vehicles had been set on fire on New Year's Eve, in the name of a stated principle of
"transparency",
the last official count dates back to 2009: at the time he mentioned an evening considered rather "calm" with some 1147 carcasses found charred.
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Since then, the disclosure of the figures had been abandoned in order to avoid any escalation or competition between cities.
Refusing to attribute the "festive" outbreaks of New Year's Eve only to the vandals, the experts had also noted that the claims are linked to private disputes or as part of insurance scams, some motorists not hesitating to take advantage of the violence of New Year's Eve to set fire to their old sedan.
Finally, to a lesser extent, the thugs also sometimes crack matches to remove any compromising trace after a nightly outfit.
The note by the Interior Minister also invited the prefects to take
"whenever possible"
the
"decrees fuel sales ban in transportable containers"
or
"selling alcohol to take away from."
In addition,
"control and awareness-raising operations"
should be carried out with
"fireworks dealers"
while
"appropriate identity checks"
and
"vehicle searches"
will be carried out in order to
"ensure the absence of transport of dangerous elements likely to be used against the internal security forces ”.
The minister also requires to
"secure"
the sites and to study the
"possibility of closing all or part of public transport from 8 pm".
If the overwhelming majority of thugs are rampant in urban areas, more than 40,000 gendarmes will be on alert over 95% of the territory, even in its most remote corners, in order to enforce government measures.
Supported by some of the 80 squadrons mobilized for these “celebrations”, the soldiers will be just as inflexible.
Deployed on the main and secondary axes leading to cities, they will issue fines of 135 euros for the slightest sprain.
"Everyone knows the health situation, we do not take anyone by surprise,"
blows an executive.
Finally, the specialized services will not let their guard down on the terrorism front either.
Still bruised by the attack of September 25, 2020, committed near the former premises of
Charlie Hebdo
, by the beheading of Samuel Paty on October 16?
and by the killing of Notre-Dame de Nice thirteen days later, France is aware that the jihadists can strike again at any time.
And mark 2021 with a black stone.