The interior ministry said that around 500 cars were burned by gangs of youths around the country on the night of July 13. However it has refused to issue figures for July 14, saying only that it was "relatively calm". Journalists on local and national newspapers who tried to find out more were told by police that strict instructions had been issued from the ministry in Paris "not to communicate on the incidents of July 14".
In the past, the number of cars burned on Bastille Day itself has tended to equal or exceed those destroyed the night before.
The run-up to last week's holiday was marred by two much-publicised outbreaks of suburban violence. In Firminy, near St. Etienne in central France, there were three nights of rioting after a suspected drug-dealer hanged himself in a police cell. And in Louviers, west of Paris, police clashed with youths after a young man died in a fall from his mini-motorcycle at a roadblock.
Police said at the time that there appeared to be a worrying spread of unrest from the notorious suburban neighbourhoods into smaller provincial towns.
The interior ministry has been caught before trying to dowplay the extent of car-burning. On January 1, 2008 it said 372 cars had been destroyed around the country, when in fact the number was nearly 900.
Opponents on the left say that President Nicolas Sarkozy is unwilling to admit he has failed to keep his promises to stop suburban rioting.
Right-wing critics say that like its predecessors, the Sarkozy government has an interest in playing down violence that is carried out overwhelmingly by youths of Arab and African origin.
Poster Comment:
In case you did not read the last few lines:
Right-wing critics say that like its predecessors, the Sarkozy government has an interest in playing down violence that is carried out overwhelmingly by youths of Arab and African origin.