New Year's Eve - French people stock up on firecrackers in Germany
Due to a far-reaching ban on fireworks in Alsace, many French people from the region close to the border are stocking up on fireworks, firecrackers and rockets in Germany. Since a ban on the sale of fireworks came into force on December 4, 850 kilos of banned fireworks have been discovered by police and customs in the Haut-Rhin department alone, according to Prefect Thierry Queffélec in Mulhouse, as reported by BFMTV on Saturday.
On Friday alone, investigators in the city confiscated 18,500 fireworks weighing around 500 kilos, which may have come from Germany. France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of a record quantity. According to a report in the newspaper "Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace", the suspect, who was in Germany at the time of the search of an annex, is said to have sold the fireworks, which are banned in Alsace, via social networks. The value of the fireworks was estimated at around 200,000 euros.
The small border traffic in firecrackers also works in the other direction, as the newspaper "Le Républicain Lorrain" reported. In Lorraine, where the rules for fireworks are less strict than in Alsace and there is a corresponding sale, a number of Saarlanders mingled with the customers. As a fireworks dealer in Stiring-Wendel, just over the border near Saarbrücken, told the newspaper, although firecrackers are often cheaper in Germany, fireworks batteries in France contain more powder than in Germany, which attracts customers across the border.
In France, many municipalities have banned fireworks for fire safety reasons or out of concern about riots, such as Paris and Strasbourg. Certain categories of fireworks are reserved for professionals anyway. Many cities have organized firework shows instead. The most famous is certainly the one on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where a million people welcomed in the New Year last year.
Report BFMTV Report DNA Report Le Républicain Lorrain
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Source: www.stern.de
