France experienced five days of unseasonably high temperatures in May, followed by a record-breaking 11-day heatwave in June that has claimed at least 1,000 lives. Health officials said that the toll is expected to rise significantly. While the motion of no confidence is not expected to pass, it reflects the anger of some French politicians over what they describe as the government’s inadequate measures to help France face sweltering heat of above 40C in many parts of the country this month. Green parliamentary leader Cyrielle
Chatelain said her party planned to submit a motion of no confidence against Sébastien Lecornu’s government on Tuesday. Her party also called for a commission of inquiry into the government’s policy for adapting to rising temperatures. “The government’s lack of adaptation kills, just as much as the heat does,” Chatelain told reporters. “The situation we are seeing today in our schools and in our hospitals shows that we have a government that is incapable of managing.” The latest episode of extreme temperatures disrupted life in
France, where few homes are equipped with air-conditioning units, and most schools are not designed to cope with extreme heat. Lecornu said on Monday that more people had died in their homes during the latest heatwave than in previous episodes. Heatwaves typically cause between 1,000 and 7,000 deaths per year, and “this summer we may be closer to 7,000 than to 1,000”, epidemiologist Basile Chaix of French research institute INSERM told AFP. Nicolas Revel, director general of the Paris public hospital system, said he expected
the death toll from the June heatwave to be lower than that of 2003, when 15,000 people died, but “probably” higher than an episode last year that claimed 5,700 lives. Several Green lawmakers and senators have said the record June heatwave might have claimed about 10,000 lives. Speaking in parliament, Lecornu accused the Greens of spreading “false” information. “It’s scandalous,” he said, adding he was outraged. “It’s the first time I’ve lost my temper.” Citing preliminary figures, health officials on Sunday said they registered around
1,000 more deaths than during the same period in previous months since Wednesday last week, when France was at its hottest since records began. Health Minister Stephanie Rist’s office said those figures are expected to rise further. The current death toll from the second heatwave is mainly based on deaths recorded through electronic death certificates, which “cover only about 60 percent of deaths on average”, it said. But “the overall scale suggests that we will still remain below the excess mortality levels” of the 2003
heatwave, Rist’s office added. Earlier on Tuesday, Caroline Semaille, director general of Public Health France, said that there were at least 300 more deaths than expected during the unusually early May heatwave. She said the spike corresponded to an increase of nearly 14 percent, while adding that the deaths were due to all causes combined and were not necessarily linked to elevated temperatures.
France, Greens, no-confidence vote, heatwave, June heatwave, Sébastien Lecornu, Cyrielle Chatelain, Stephanie Rist, INSERM, Public Health France, electronic death certificates