Sandrine Rousseau: Heatwaves and fires should be “an extremely serious alert”

Green MP Sandrine Rousseau estimated on Monday that the increase in heatwaves and fires this summer, as well as the drought, should constitute “an extremely serious warning about the collapse that is beginning”, and criticized the “neediness” of the government.

“What we experienced this summer should be an extremely serious warning about the collapse that is beginning and in fact, we are acting as if everything continued as before,” lamented the environmentalist leader on Franceinfo.

She regretted that the first budget announcements that emerged only concerned the freezing of retirement pensions for the wealthiest and “nothing about what we experienced this summer”.

“We have been in a form of indigence from the government since the start of this crisis,” she explained, regretting that the only notable controversy has revolved around the number of Canadairs available to France.

“There was not the slightest announcement that we were going to review the waterways, redevelop small waterways, that we were going to develop wetlands, that we were going to slow down the circulation of water to ensure that the soil absorbs more,” she detailed.

Regarding the fire which has been ravaging the Landes for several days - and was set for the night from Sunday to Monday - she spoke of a "misunderstanding of the risk and a minimization of the climatic risk", while the "intensive silviculture" of maritime pines is very present there.

According to her, in addition, “there is a need for European civil security, an enormous capacity for action which can be deployed in a very short time” in the various affected countries.

On this subject, Sandrine Rousseau denounced “a huge lack of action by Emmanuel Macron”.