A cigarette butt carelessly flicked out of a car window set Internet users on fire. A small incandescent filter swung in the seaside resort of Palafrugell, on the very touristy Costa Brava, which makes the rounds of Spanish social networks and has embarked young French people in a media whirlwind. The two tourists found themselves at the heart of a controversy when one of them was filmed throwing his cigarette in a cobbled street. According to our information, the two young people went to the Palafrugell police station on Thursday where they were fined 200 euros. "They recognized the facts but say they have not measured the consequences", indicates to us a French police source.
It was a motorist who filmed the scene: the passenger of a black Peugeot city car registered in Occitania casually throws his butt in the street.
Behind him, the Spaniard who films seems to be annoyed and frantically honks the French car.
His two passengers, two rather young men, turn around and observe him for a few moments without seeming to understand the reason for his annoyance.
The driver raises his hand through the window as a sign of appeasement.
"As tourists, we must be impeccable"
But it is not the appeasement that the Spaniard seeks after this incivility punishable by a fine. The video is quickly posted on Twitter and shared several hundred times by outraged Internet users. “These people do it quite naturally. They have no brain or remorse or conscience, ”comments one woman. Another denounces the lack of civility of French tourists, many of whom come to Spain each year: "It is the cynicism of French citizenship ..."
The reactions of French internet users quickly followed on Twitter.
“I am French and I love Spain.
Their behavior is unacceptable.
As tourists, we must be impeccable, ”sermons a man.
Another Frenchman: “200 bullets, he's doing well !!
In this case, for me, the denunciation is no problem.
As a reminder, the French are not very well seen abroad and this behavior contributes to it.
Sorry for you my boy, I would have put you 1000 euros and points less ”.
"We cannot risk suffering a new fire"
To the point that the Mossos, the Catalan police reacted, specifying that the "traffic colleagues in the Girona region" have been warned.
The author of the video is even encouraged to file a complaint.
In the end, it was the Palafrugell police who, faced with the virality of the video, took matters into their own hands.
Thanks to CCTV cameras, the police can identify the registration number of the car and the identity of the owner.
For a few hours, the young French people were therefore wanted by the Spanish police who had every intention of fining them.
"In the current context, with the intense heat and high temperatures, we cannot risk suffering a new fire due to the jet of cigarettes from a moving car," said local police.
In mid-July, a huge fire had indeed devastated 415 ha of vegetation in the Cap de Creus Natural Park, a few kilometers from Palafrugell. 350 people had to be evacuated, including residents of a campsite. 300 firefighters had been mobilized. According to the Catalan Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, it was a butt that was at the origin of the fire. DNA analyzes were reportedly carried out to try to identify its owner. Spain is regularly hit by fires which are more violent each year due to global warming.
