France experienced its “hottest” summer on record, causing 7,300 deaths, according to a still provisional report from Public Health France. It was accompanied by an unprecedented drought and devastating fires, Météo-France recalled on Thursday. After these events which deeply affected the French, associations, unions and collectives want to maintain the pressure in this new political year. “It was a summer like no other, it should not be a return to school like any other,” defends Jean-François Julliard, general director of France Nature Environnement (FNE), to franceinfo.
"There is a real risk of environmental amnesia. After the emotion and suffering of the summer, we could move on to something else. We don't want to. We must continue to carry what we experienced in our flesh."
Jean-François Julliard, director of France nature environment
at franceinfo
Several mobilizations are thus organized from Tuesday September 8, in addition to other meetings against the pesticide industry or the opening of the A69. As the 2027 presidential election approaches, these mobilizations also want to weigh in on the debate. “We heard a lot of candidates being moved by what happened this summer, but not many specifying what they intend to do so that it doesn’t happen again,” regrets the leader of FNE.
Firefighters on strike from September 8
Several megafires ravaged forests this summer. The summer season broke the record for burned areas in twenty years of satellite measurements in France: the flames covered at least 120,000 hectares in France, according to provisional estimates. Faced with the exploding number of interventions, firefighters are calling for more resources and massive recruitment. They therefore filed a strike notice from September 8 to October 20. "On September 8, we will have the hand-delivery of the civil security modernization bill. And on October 20, it is the first part of the finance bill" which "will be voted on", detailed Xavier Boy, spokesperson for the firefighters' inter-union, deeming it necessary to maintain "the pressure" between these two dates.
Already in mid-August, the nine firefighters' unions emerged "very disappointed" from their meeting with the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez. They had already called for a national mobilization between September 26 and 29, including "a static demonstration", several days in a row, at Place de la République, in Paris, called the "Columns of the Revolt", specifies HERE. The Minister of the Interior, for his part, had promised to present to the unions on September 8 a bill resulting from a “Beauvau of civil security”, in the works since mid-2024.
“The texts they are going to present to us will have to be up to standard,” warned Xavier Boy. “We are ready for the risks of yesterday, we ask to be ready to face the risks of tomorrow,” defended Peter Gurruchaga, of the CGT-Sdis, while climate change aggravates, according to experts, droughts and other extreme weather phenomena. “We have made the firefighters the heroes of this summer, we must not simply thank them when they brave the flames, then turn our backs on them when they have requests. They are at the heart of what is happening, they need resources,” defends the general director of France Nature Environnement.
Firefighters, nurses, students and environmental protection associations gathered on September 15
“Amidst the ashes, the birth of an unprecedented movement.” Unions of firefighters, nurses, students, environmental and animal protection associations, and even a feminist collective, are calling for a demonstration on Tuesday September 15 from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Paris, in front of the Ministry of the Economy. “France has suffered a catastrophic and sadly predictable summer. Faced with policies guilty of climate inaction, a historic coalition between unions and associations from various backgrounds has just emerged to bring urgent demands in unison,” write the organizers.
“This team of environmental associations, firefighters, nurses, etc., I have never seen that. It says something about the unprecedented nature of this summer. On this occasion, the country's first aiders, those who are really in contact with the affected populations, will be present,” greets Jean-François Julliard.
They particularly want to influence the 2027 finance bill, the examination of which must begin on October 12 in the National Assembly. They are demanding in particular "a plan for shutters and air blowers of one billion euros each year" to adapt housing to extreme heat, an increase of 2 billion euros for the green fund, the taxation of those "primarily responsible for the climate crisis" and the creation of climate leave. “These traumatic episodes should not be the start of a series that gets worse season after season.”
A citizen collective initiating a national appeal on September 26
“We demand an emergency, adaptation and mitigation plan without waiting another summer.” At the initiative of the Bio Consom'acteurs association, nearly a thousand citizens signed a letter to the attention of Emmanuel Macron, and are calling for demonstrations on Saturday September 26 throughout France, as explained by the Green media. The event, entitled "March for the climate, peace and solidarity", includes "106 mobilizations already confirmed", in Metz, Bordeaux, Avignon, Angers and even Reims, according to its website. In Paris, the march is due to start at Place de la République at 2 p.m.
In their letter to the President of the Republic, which was signed by more than 20,000 people on September 4, the organizations and citizens regret the government's inaction in the face of climate disasters. “No one could ignore it, because everything was written,” recall the signatories. They “[require] an emergency plan because next summer will be hotter than this one”, an “adaptation plan, because no municipality must be left alone in the face of fire and thirst” and finally “a mitigation plan [of greenhouse gas emissions], because we cannot adapt indefinitely to a catastrophe that we continue to fuel”.
