PARIS – French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on July 6 survived a no-confidence motion brought by the Green party over the government’s handling of recent heatwaves, including one in June that killed more than 2,000 people.
The motion followed five days of unseasonably high temperatures in May, then a record-breaking 11-day heatwave in June, which led to school closures and cancelled festivals throughout France.
Green party lawmakers behind the no-confidence vote accused the government of failing to implement measures to address rising temperatures linked to climate change.
The motion won the backing of just 132 members of the National Assembly, largely from the Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed party, who failed to secure the backing of the pivotal Socialist bloc or the far-right National Rally needed to reach the required threshold of 289 votes.
Before the vote, the prime minister accused the signatories of “exploiting the victims” of the extreme heat episodes, describing the motion as political manoeuvring ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Although its defeat was widely expected, the motion reflected anger among some lawmakers over what they described as the government’s inadequate preparedness for temperatures that topped 40 deg C in many parts of the country in June.
Green parliamentary leader Cyrielle Chatelain said last week the government’s “lack of adaptation” to climate change was as responsible for the deaths as the high temperatures themselves.
The vote exposed divisions within the Socialist party ahead of a July 9 vote to decide how it will choose its candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
Twenty Socialist lawmakers, including party leader Olivier Faure, backed the motion, but a majority of the Socialist parliamentary group did not.
“Our responsibility is not to add instability to inaction,” said Socialist lawmaker Fabrice Barusseau.
Lecornu had on July 5 responded to some of the Socialists’ demands, saying he would put forth a new bill on climate change adaptation.
France recorded its hottest June since records began in 1947, weather service Meteo-France said, with the heatwave from June 17 to 30 seeing temperatures spike above 40 deg C across more than 40 per cent of the country.
Scientists have said human-caused climate change was “unequivocally” responsible for the intensity of the heatwave that battered Europe in late June.
French health authorities said there had been 2,025 additional deaths during the week starting June 22, when temperatures peaked, compared with the previous week, a mortality increase of at least 29 per cent.
May’s heatwave was unusually early, with health officials saying there were at least 300 more deaths than expected during that period. AFP
