The French government led by Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Monday survived a no-confidence vote after the National Assembly rejected a motion accusing it of mishandling the deadly June heatwave.
The motion, submitted on July 2 by Green Party lawmakers alongside members of the hard-left parliamentary group La France Insoumise and the left-wing Socialist Party, alleged that the government failed to respond effectively to the record-breaking heatwave that struck France in late June.
According to the National Assembly, the motion secured 132 votes in favour, falling well short of the 289 votes required to topple the government.
Lawmakers supporting the motion said the June heatwave overwhelmed emergency services, led to school closures and rail disruptions, and highlighted the effects of years of underinvestment in public services. They also faulted the government for not introducing emergency measures to reduce the impact of the crisis on the population.
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Supporters of the motion also argued that, according to Meteo-France, the June heatwave was France’s 27th since 2010, yet the government had not taken sufficient action despite the growing frequency of extreme weather events.
Meteo-France reported that the country experienced its hottest June since records began in 1947. The average temperature for the month reached 22.7 degrees Celsius, which was 3.8 degrees Celsius above the 1991–2020 average, according to the agency’s monthly climate report released on Friday.
The historic heatwave, which began on June 17, drove temperatures to unprecedented levels nationwide between June 22 and 26. The unusually early and intense heatwave lasted until June 30, prompting red heatwave alerts in 72 French departments. Meteo-France said the scale of the event was unprecedented since the warning system was introduced in 2004.
Preliminary monitoring data from France’s public health agency showed that 2,025 excess all-cause deaths were recorded during the heatwave between June 22 and 28, marking a 29.1 percent increase compared with the previous week. The figures were released on Friday.
Xinhua
