Sébastien Lecornu booed at Porge: anger and questions from residents after the fire

Dozens of residents gathered to shout their anger and make it heard. Traveling this Monday to Porge, a commune in Gironde ravaged by the fire in July, Sébastien Lecornu was booed copiously by the residents of this commune located north of the Arcachon basin. At the end of July, 183 houses burned in this village of just under 4,000 inhabitants, arousing the anger of those who lost everything.

Upon his arrival in a car with tinted windows, the French Prime Minister was greeted by whistles and angry shouts. Sunday afternoon, Sébastien Lecornu had already toured the Porge with Mayor Martial Zaninetti. A surprise trip which had not been announced and therefore took place far from the cameras. This Monday, some 200 people dressed in black, gathered in front of the town hall, booed the Prime Minister. “He doesn’t want to meet us, it’s a shame. We had things to express” and “we are greeted by columns of CRS who block our access”, regrets Ludivine Daurignac, organizer of a collective of affected residents who intend to file complaints “to get answers”. According to the Prime Minister's entourage, a meeting with a group of residents and firefighters is to take place this afternoon.

Le Porge sacrificed to save Cap Ferret? After the fire, some residents criticized the firefighters and the State, believing that their village had been sacrificed to protect the upscale Cap Ferret peninsula. “We have absolutely nothing to hide about the progress of the fire protection operations in recent weeks,” assured the Prime Minister on Monday, saying he was ready to explain “what happened minute by minute, hour by hour, the nature and quality of the means employed, why this or that tactical choice was made.” The head of government went to Mérignac, near Bordeaux, for a round table with “local elected officials and those involved in reconstruction”. Two firefighters died while intervening in this town on July 21. A minor was indicted. “There is anger, there is emotion, that is very natural, people have lost everything, more than that. But I still want us to put a little bit of truth and rationality back into what happened,” added Sébastien Lecornu.

Fewer tourists this summer Tourism in Gironde recorded a drop of around 50% in attendance between the start of the megafire which covered 42,000 hectares and mid-August, the chamber of commerce and industry and the department's Medef said on Monday. With the fire now extinguished, professionals in the sector have noted “almost a return to normal” in recent days.