Question 16781 — security of property and people

Summary

Ms. Anaïs Sabatini questions the Minister of the Interior about the worrying increase in thefts of copper and metal cables, which are now affecting essential infrastructure such as local community equipment. On the night of June 1 to 2, 2026, the municipal stadium of Latour-Bas-Elne, a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales, suffered significant acts of vandalism. The perpetrators cut the power cables, stealing between 800 and 1,000 meters of copper and damaging video surveillance. These facts occur just a few days after the ransacking of the Saleilles stadium, a town in the same department. The football clubhouse was devastated, equipment and foodstuffs were stolen, the electrical networks were heavily damaged, lighting poles were sawn down and their cables stripped of their copper. Part of the fence was also torn off. These facts are unfortunately not isolated. France records an average of sixteen copper thefts every day. Driven by a copper price which has more than doubled in a few years, exceeding $10,000 per tonne, this trafficking indiscriminately affects rail, electricity and telecommunications networks, construction sites, businesses, farms, local authorities and individuals. His The consequences are serious: power and network outages, trains canceled or delayed, disorganized public services, considerable additional costs ultimately weighing on the taxpayer and a growing feeling of insecurity around essential infrastructure. Today it remains too easy to sell copper or cables of dubious origin without having to clearly justify their origin, while the controls carried out at the recyclers and scrap dealers remain insufficient given the scale of the phenomenon. Municipalities, on the front line, often find themselves deprived, both financially and technically, to secure their equipment and replace installations whose repair costs continue to increase. She asks him what measures the Government intends to take to strengthen the criminal sanctions applicable to metal theft and concealment, intensify controls among recycling professionals by making the justification of the origin of materials placed on the market fully enforceable and financially support mayors in securing and replacing their vandalized public equipment.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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