(Adnkronos) – French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called the 10,000 deaths caused by the heatwave, reported by the Greens of Les Écologistes, “scandalous” and “false”. During a heated parliamentary debate with the leader of the environmentalist party, Cyrielle Chatelain, the prime minister firmly rejected any accusation of “inaction” in the face of climate change and the record temperatures sweeping the country.
“This is the first time I’ve lost my temper,” exclaimed the prime minister during question time at the National Assembly. “Where do you get this figure that you and your representatives have been reporting on television for more than three days, establishing a human toll that is false? It’s scandalous, it’s unworthy!” Lecornu also stated that the inquiry commission requested by the ecologist deputies on the government’s “adaptation policy” would “boomerang” on them, as “it will be concluded that there is no inaction, but there is an obvious need to accelerate”.
The ecologist and socialist group in the Assembly has indeed announced its intention to table a motion of no confidence against Lecornu’s government, to denounce “its total unpreparedness both in the face of the heatwave we have just experienced, and, above all, in the face of the one that is about to arrive,” as stated by Chatelain herself. The group leader stated that she had “no doubt” about the possibility of collecting the 58 signatures from deputies required to table the motion.
