The intense heatwave hitting France, with temperatures setting historic records for a month of May since records began, also threatens to scorch the French Executive. The government led by Sébastien Lecornu, which had been going through a few weeks of calm, has returned to the focus of criticism for its lack of foresight in the face of the severe heatwave that has already caused seven deaths, direct or indirect. This afternoon the Executive meets to plan for future episodes, but the opposition and environmental and social associations consider that the meeting comes too late.
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The night and early morning of Thursday took on tropical airs in the capital. Météo-France extended the orange alert for the heatwave to Paris and three departments of the small metropolitan ring for Thursday, May 28, in addition to the 13 departments already under this alert level in the west of the country. The maximum temperatures forecast for this Thursday and tomorrow in Paris should be around 34 and 35 degrees, according to Météo-France.
The temperature drop will begin gradually tomorrow in the west of the country and will slowly spread over the weekend. Although the thermometer will drop a little tomorrow and Saturday, the country will face “an increasingly heavy feeling” due to a higher presence of humidity in the air, according to the public meteorology channel. Despite the maximum temperatures being lower, the situation could be more difficult to bear. On the other hand, the difference will be really noticeable on Sunday.
At the end of the day, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called an interministerial meeting on the heatwave, aimed at developing a “resilience plan until September.” It will especially address issues related to “public care, the state of groundwater layers, and the risk of forest fires.”
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The Executive believes it is time to plan for future episodes, but the opposition, starting with the leader of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, considers that the current one should have been planned. “After several days of heatwave, they hold a meeting to prepare for the next ones. But we still don’t understand what they are doing for the current heatwave, here and now; it is quite irresponsible,” she said on Franceinfo.
Tondelier, as Le Monde pointed out, recalled on her blog a proposal she had made at the beginning of May: the creation of a “climate permit” for workers, up to five days a year. The leader of the Ecologists had just returned from a trip to Madrid, where she spoke with Yolanda Díaz, the Spanish Minister of Labor who promoted this measure applied in Spain (it allows workers to be absent from work for up to four consecutive days without this affecting their salary). “We are experiencing the earliest heatwave in our history. Are we really aware of what we are living through?” she wrote on her blog.
The Executive and local authorities have also not taken measures to close schools or cancel certain sports competitions. When asked about this matter, the Minister of Health referred to the meeting scheduled for Thursday around the head of government.
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