Cash handout stunt horrifies French minister

Marketing website Mailorama.fr was forced to call off its  plan to throw envelopes of cash to passers-by from the top of a  bus on Saturday after thousands of people turned up and began  spilling over security barriers.

The decision to call off the stunt, which had been heavily  promoted beforehand, sparked violent scenes in which shop  windows were smashed, at least one car was overturned by hooded  youths and photographers and cameramen were attacked.

Police in riot gear were called in to break up the  disturbances and about 10 people were arrested.

“This kind of behaviour by companies horrifies me,” Woerth  told Radio J. “They’ve done this in the United States but that’s  no reason to do it in France.”

Rentabiliweb, the company behind Mailorama.fr issued a  statement on Saturday saying it had official permission,  otherwise it would not have gone ahead with what it called a  “friendly, enjoyable and good natured cash-back initiative”.

“Rentaliweb deplores the excesses which occurred,” it said.

It said it would donate the 100,000 euros ($148,800) which  it had intended to distribute to a charity for the poor.

Woerth denied the violence had any wider significance for  French society in view of the economic crisis.

“If you tell people, ‘turn up at such-and-such a time and  we’ll hand out money’, they’ll come, whether they’re German,  Belgian or Costa Rican,” he said, brushing aside a suggestion it  could be a sign France was “on the brink of a social explosion”.

“Not at all. That is on the brink of idiocy,” he said.