French government faces no-confidence motion over heatwave response

France’s Green Party announced on June 30 that it will introduce a vote of no confidence against the government over its handling of last week’s record-breaking heatwave, according to POLITICO.

The attempt to bring down the minority government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is unlikely to succeed without support from other opposition groups, including the far-right National Rally or the more centrist Socialists.

The Socialist Party has previously declined to support any of the six no-confidence motions filed against Lecornu since he took office last year.

However, the prime minister and his government have faced mounting criticism over what opponents describe as inadequate preparation for the extreme heatwave, during which mainland France recorded its highest average daily temperatures on record for three consecutive days.

Temperatures in several major cities exceeded 40°C on multiple occasions, while France’s limited availability of air-conditioning and cooling infrastructure has come under renewed scrutiny.

A poll conducted by the Elabe research institute found that two-thirds of respondents believe the Lecornu government handled the crisis poorly. At the same time, 53% said they believe France is “not at all prepared” for such extreme heat.

On June 28, France’s National Public Health Agency released preliminary data indicating that approximately 1,000 more deaths were recorded during the heatwave than in the previous month.

Health Minister Stéphanie Rist cautioned that determining the exact death toll will take more time, noting that death certificates can take several days to process and that some victims may have died days after the heatwave had ended.

During parliamentary questioning on Tuesday, June 30, Cyrielle Chatelain, the Greens’ leader in the National Assembly, accused the government of bearing some responsibility for the deaths and argued that its policies had contributed to growing inequality.

Lecornu responded angrily, saying the Greens were “shooting [themselves] in the foot by trying to manufacture a purely political controversy.” Later that day, the prime minister’s office accused Chatelain of exploiting the deaths for political gain.

By Jeyhun Aghazada