French Greens to Table No-Confidence Vote Over Heat Wave Handling

PARIS — The French Green party announced Tuesday it would put forward a motion of no confidence against the government over its handling of last week’s record-breaking heat wave.

The bid to take down Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s minority government is unlikely to succeed without support from other opposition parties, such as the far-right National Rally or the more centrist-leaning Socialists. The Socialists have not supported any of the six no-confidence motions leveled against Lecornu since he became prime minister last year.

But the prime minister and his team have been the subject of intense criticism over preparedness for heat so extreme that mainland France recorded its highest average daily temperature ever for three consecutive days. Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius several times in major cities, and the country is not particularly well-equipped when it comes to air conditioning or other cooling systems.

A survey conducted by pollster Elabe on Monday and Tuesday, two of the heat wave’s hottest days, showed that two-thirds of respondents believed that Lecornu’s administration had mishandled the ongoing crisis. At the same time, 53 percent said they believe France “is not at all prepared to cope with this sort of heat wave.”

On Sunday, the French national health agency published preliminary data estimating approximately 1,000 additional deaths during the heat wave compared to the previous month. Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said more time would be needed to establish a precise death toll, as death certificates can take several days to be processed and some patients may have died in the days after the heat wave.

During questions in parliament Tuesday, Cyrielle Chatelain, the Greens’ leader in the National Assembly, said Lecornu's government bore some responsibility for the deaths and accused him of pursuing policies that deepen inequality.

“These deaths are on your conscience,” she said during a heated exchange.

The normally mild-mannered Lecornu fired back angrily, saying the Greens were “shooting [themselves] in the foot by trying to manufacture a purely political controversy.”

Later Tuesday, Lecornu’s office accused Chatelain of using the dead to score political points.